title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The permitted formats encode each number as an unsigned integer value using a fixed number of bits, referred to in the PNG specification as the "bit depth". Notice that this is not the same as color depth, which is commonly used to refer to the total number of bits in each pixel, not each channel. The permitted bit depths are summarized in the table along with the total number of bits used for each pixel.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The number of channels depends on whether the image is grayscale or color and whether it has an alpha channel. PNG allows the following combinations of channels, called the "color type".


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The color type is specified as an 8-bit value however only the low 3 bits are used and, even then, only the five combinations listed above are permitted. So long as the color type is valid it can be considered as a bit field as summarized in the adjacent table:


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: With indexed color images, the palette always stores trichromatic colors at a depth of 8 bits per channel (24 bits per palette entry). Additionally, an optional list of 8-bit alpha values for the palette entries may be included; if not included, or if shorter than the palette, the remaining palette entries are assumed to be opaque. The palette must not have more entries than the image bit depth allows for, but it may have fewer (for example, if an image with 8-bit pixels only uses 90 colors then it does not need palette entries for all 256 colors). The palette must contain entries for all the pixel values present in the image.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The standard allows indexed color PNGs to have 1, 2, 4 or 8 bits per pixel; grayscale images with no alpha channel may have 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bits per pixel. Everything else uses a bit depth per channel of either 8 or 16. The combinations this allows are given in the table above. The standard requires that decoders can read all supported color formats, but many image editors can only produce a small subset of them.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG offers a variety of transparency options. With true-color and grayscale images either a single pixel value can be declared as transparent or an alpha channel can be added (enabling any percentage of partial transparency to be used). For paletted images, alpha values can be added to palette entries. The number of such values stored may be less than the total number of palette entries, in which case the remaining entries are considered fully opaque.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The scanning of pixel values for binary transparency is supposed to be performed before any color reduction to avoid pixels becoming unintentionally transparent. This is most likely to pose an issue for systems that can decode 16-bits-per-channel images (as is required for compliance with the specification) but only output at 8 bits per channel (the norm for all but the highest end systems).


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Alpha "storage" can be "associated" ("premultiplied") or "unassociated", but PNG standardized on "unassociated" ("non-premultiplied") alpha, which means that imagery is not alpha "encoded"; the emissions represented in RGB are not the emissions at the pixel level. This means that the over operation will multiply the RGB emissions by the alpha, and cannot represent emission and occlusion properly.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG uses DEFLATE, a non-patented lossless data compression algorithm involving a combination of LZ77 and Huffman coding. Permissively-licensed DEFLATE implementations, such as zlib, are widely available.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Compared to formats with lossy compression such as JPEG, choosing a compression setting higher than average delays processing, but often does not result in a significantly smaller file size.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Before DEFLATE is applied, the data is transformed via a prediction method: a single "filter method" is used for the entire image, while for each image line, a "filter type" is chosen to transform the data to make it more efficiently compressible. The filter type used for a scanline is prepended to the scanline to enable inline decompression.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: There is only one filter method in the current PNG specification (denoted method 0), and thus in practice the only choice is which filter type to apply to each line. For this method, the filter predicts the value of each pixel based on the values of previous neighboring pixels, and subtracts the predicted color of the pixel from the actual value, as in DPCM. An image line filtered in this way is often more compressible than the raw image line would be, especially if it is similar to the line above, since the differences from prediction will generally be clustered around 0, rather than spread over all possible image values. This is particularly important in relating separate rows, since DEFLATE has no understanding that an image is a 2D entity, and instead just sees the image data as a stream of bytes.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: There are five filter types for filter method 0; each type predicts the value of each byte (of the image data before filtering) based on the corresponding byte of the pixel to the left ("A"), the pixel above ("B"), and the pixel above and to the left ("C") or some combination thereof, and encodes the "difference" between the predicted value and the actual value. Filters are applied to byte values, not pixels; pixel values may be one or two bytes, or several values per byte, but never cross byte boundaries. The filter types are:


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Compare to the version of DPCM used in lossless JPEG, and to the discrete wavelet transform using 1×2, 2×1, or (for the Paeth predictor) 2×2 windows and Haar wavelets.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Compression is further improved by choosing filter types adaptively on a line-by-line basis. This improvement, and a heuristic method of implementing it commonly used by PNG-writing software, were created by Lee Daniel Crocker, who tested the methods on many images during the creation of the format; the choice of filter is a component of file size optimization, as discussed below.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: If interlacing is used, each stage of the interlacing is filtered separately, meaning that the image can be progressively rendered as each stage is received; however, interlacing generally makes compression less effective.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG offers an optional 2-dimensional, 7-pass interlacing scheme—the Adam7 algorithm. This is more sophisticated than GIF's 1-dimensional, 4-pass scheme, and allows a clearer low-resolution image to be visible earlier in the transfer, particularly if interpolation algorithms such as bicubic interpolation are used.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG itself does not support animation. MNG is an extension to PNG that does; it was designed by members of the PNG Group. MNG shares PNG's basic structure and chunks, but it is significantly more complex and has a different file signature, which automatically renders it incompatible with standard PNG decoders. This means that most web browsers and applications either never supported MNG or dropped support for it.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The complexity of MNG led to the proposal of APNG by developers at the Mozilla Foundation. It is based on PNG, supports animation and is simpler than MNG. APNG offers fallback to single-image display for PNG decoders that do not support APNG. Today, the APNG format is supported by all major web browsers. APNG is supported in Firefox 3.0 and up, Pale Moon (all versions), and Safari 8.0 and up. Chromium 59.0 added APNG support, followed by Google Chrome. Opera supported APNG in versions 10–12.1, but support lapsed in version 15 when it switched to the Blink rendering engine; support was re-added in Opera 46 (inherited from Chromium 59). Microsoft Edge has supported APNG since version 79.0, when it switched to a Chromium-based engine.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The PNG Group decided in April 2007 not to embrace APNG. Several alternatives were under discussion, including ANG, aNIM/mPNG, "PNG in GIF" and its subset "RGBA in GIF". However, currently only APNG has widespread support.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Displayed in the fashion of hex editors, with on the left side byte values shown in hex format, and on the right side their equivalent characters from ISO-8859-1 with unrecognized and control characters replaced with periods. Additionally the PNG signature and individual chunks are marked with colors. Note they are easy to identify because of their human readable type names (in this example PNG, IHDR, IDAT, and IEND).


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG images are less widely supported by older browsers. In particular, IE6 has limited support for PNG.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format can produce a smaller file than PNG for photographic (and photo-like) images, since JPEG uses a lossy encoding method specifically designed for photographic image data, which is typically dominated by soft, low-contrast transitions, and an amount of noise or similar irregular structures. Using PNG instead of a high-quality JPEG for such images would result in a large increase in filesize with negligible gain in quality. In comparison, when storing images that contain text, line art, or graphics – images with sharp transitions and large areas of solid color – the PNG format can compress image data more than JPEG can. Additionally, PNG is lossless, while JPEG produces visual artifacts around high-contrast areas. (Such artifacts depend on the settings used in the JPG compression; they can be quite noticeable when a low-quality [high-compression] setting is used.) Where an image contains both sharp transitions and photographic parts, a choice must be made between the two effects. JPEG does not support transparency.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: JPEG's lossy compression also suffers from generation loss, where repeatedly decoding and re-encoding an image to save it again causes a loss of information each time, degrading the image. Because PNG is lossless, it is suitable for storing images to be edited. While PNG is reasonably efficient when compressing photographic images, there are lossless compression formats designed specifically for photographic images, lossless WebP and Adobe DNG (digital negative) for example. However these formats are either not widely supported, or are proprietary. An image can be stored losslessly and converted to JPEG format only for distribution, so that there is no generation loss.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: While the PNG specification does not explicitly include a standard for embedding Exif image data from sources such as digital cameras, the preferred method for embedding EXIF data in a PNG is to use the non-critical ancillary chunk label codice_14.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Early web browsers did not support PNG images; JPEG and GIF were the main image formats. JPEG was commonly used when exporting images containing gradients for web pages, because of GIF's limited color depth. However, JPEG compression causes a gradient to blur slightly. A PNG format reproduces a gradient as accurately as possible for a given bit depth, while keeping the file size small. PNG became the optimal choice for small gradient images as web browser support for the format improved. No images at all are needed to display gradients in modern browsers, as gradients can be created using CSS.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: JPEG-LS is an image format by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, though far less widely known and supported than the other lossy JPEG format discussed above. It is directly comparable with PNG, and has a standard set of test images. On the Waterloo Repertoire ColorSet, a standard set of test images (unrelated to the JPEG-LS conformance test set), JPEG-LS generally performs better than PNG, by 10–15%, but on some images PNG performs substantially better, on the order of 50–75%. Thus, if both of these formats are options and file size is an important criterion, they should both be considered, depending on the image. We can also convert the images PNG TO JPG with converter tool easily. How to convert PNG to JPG using Windows


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is a format that incorporates an extremely wide range of options. While this makes TIFF useful as a generic format for interchange between professional image editing applications, it makes adding support for it to applications a much bigger task and so it has little support in applications not concerned with image manipulation (such as web browsers). The high level of extensibility also means that most applications provide only a subset of possible features, potentially creating user confusion and compatibility issues.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The most common general-purpose, lossless compression algorithm used with TIFF is Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW). This compression technique, also used in GIF, was covered by patents until 2003. TIFF also supports the compression algorithm PNG uses (i.e. Compression Tag 0008 'Adobe-style') with medium usage and support by applications. TIFF also offers special-purpose lossless compression algorithms like CCITT Group IV, which can compress bilevel images (e.g., faxes or black-and-white text) better than PNG's compression algorithm.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG supports non-premultiplied alpha only whereas TIFF also supports "associated" (premultiplied) alpha.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The official reference implementation of the PNG format is the programming library "libpng". It is published as free software under the terms of a permissive free software license. Therefore, it is usually found as an important system library in free operating systems.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: The PNG format is widely supported by graphics programs, including Adobe Photoshop, Corel's Photo-Paint and Paint Shop Pro, the GIMP, GraphicConverter, Helicon Filter, ImageMagick, Inkscape, IrfanView, Pixel image editor, Paint.NET and Xara Photo & Graphic Designer and many others. Some programs bundled with popular operating systems which support PNG include Microsoft's Paint and Apple's Photos/iPhoto and Preview, with the GIMP also often being bundled with popular Linux distributions.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Adobe Fireworks (formerly by Macromedia) uses PNG as its native file format, allowing other image editors and preview utilities to view the flattened image. However, Fireworks by default also stores metadata for layers, animation, vector data, text and effects. Such files should not be distributed directly. Fireworks can instead export the image as an optimized PNG without the extra metadata for use on web pages, etc.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG support first appeared in 1997, in Internet Explorer 4.0b1 (32-bit only for NT), and in Netscape 4.04.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Despite calls by the Free Software Foundation and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), tools such as gif2png, and campaigns such as Burn All GIFs, PNG adoption on websites was fairly slow due to late and buggy support in Internet Explorer, particularly regarding transparency.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG compatible browsers include: Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Camino, Internet Explorer 7 (still numerous issues), Internet Explorer 8 (still some issues), Internet Explorer 9 and many others. For the complete comparison, see Comparison of web browsers (Image format support).


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Especially versions of Internet Explorer (Windows) below 9.0 (released 2011) have numerous problems which prevent it from correctly rendering PNG images.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG icons have been supported in most distributions of Linux since at least 1999, in desktop environments such as GNOME. In 2006, Microsoft Windows support for PNG icons was introduced in Windows Vista. PNG icons are supported in AmigaOS 4, AROS, macOS, iOS and MorphOS as well. In addition, Android makes extensive use of PNGs.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: PNG file size can vary significantly depending on how it is encoded and compressed; this is discussed and a number of tips are given in "PNG: The Definitive Guide."


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Compared to GIF files, a PNG file with the same information (256 colors, no ancillary chunks/metadata), compressed by an effective compressor is normally smaller than a GIF image. Depending on the file and the compressor, PNG may range from somewhat smaller (10%) to significantly smaller (50%) to somewhat larger (5%), but is rarely significantly larger for large images. This is attributed to the performance of PNG's DEFLATE compared to GIF's LZW, and because the added precompression layer of PNG's predictive filters take account of the 2-dimensional image structure to further compress files; as filtered data encodes differences between pixels, they will tend to cluster closer to 0, rather than being spread across all possible values, and thus be more easily compressed by DEFLATE. However, some versions of Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW and MS Paint provide poor PNG compression, creating the impression that GIF is more efficient.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: There is thus a filesize trade-off between high color depth, maximal metadata (including color space information, together with information that does not affect display), interlacing, and speed of compression, which all yield large files, with lower color depth, fewer or no ancillary chunks, no interlacing, and tuned but computationally intensive filtering and compression. For different purposes, different trade-offs are chosen: a maximal file may be best for archiving and editing, while a stripped down file may be best for use on a website, and similarly fast but poor compression is preferred when repeatedly editing and saving a file, while slow but high compression is preferred when a file is stable: when archiving or posting.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Interlacing is a trade-off: it dramatically speeds up early rendering of large files (improves latency), but may increase file size (decrease throughput) for little gain, particularly for small files.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Although PNG is a lossless format, PNG encoders can preprocess image data in a lossy fashion to improve PNG compression. For example, quantizing a truecolor PNG to 256 colors allows the indexed color type to be used for a likely reduction in file size.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Some programs are more efficient than others when saving PNG files, this relates to implementation of the PNG compression used by the program.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Many graphics programs (such as Apple's Preview software) save PNGs with large amounts of metadata and color-correction data that are generally unnecessary for Web viewing. Unoptimized PNG files from Adobe Fireworks are also notorious for this since they contain options to make the image editable in supported editors. Also CorelDRAW (at least version 11) sometimes produces PNGs which cannot be opened by Internet Explorer (versions 6–8).


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Adobe Photoshop's performance on PNG files has improved in the CS Suite when using the Save For Web feature (which also allows explicit PNG/8 use).


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Adobe's Fireworks saves larger PNG files than many programs by default. This stems from the mechanics of its "Save" format: the images produced by Fireworks' save function include large, private chunks, containing complete layer and vector information. This allows further lossless editing. When saved with the "Export" option, Fireworks' PNGs are competitive with those produced by other image editors, but are no longer editable as anything but flattened bitmaps. Fireworks is unable to save size-optimized vector-editable PNGs.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Poor compression increases the PNG file size but does not affect the image quality or compatibility of the file with other programs.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: When the color depth of a truecolor image is reduced to an 8-bit palette (as in GIF), the resulting image data is typically much smaller. Thus a truecolor PNG is typically larger than a color-reduced GIF, although PNG could store the color-reduced version as a palettized file of comparable size. Conversely, some tools, when saving images as PNGs, automatically save them as truecolor, even if the original data use only 8-bit color, thus bloating the file unnecessarily. Both factors can lead to the misconception that PNG files are larger than equivalent GIF files.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Before zopflipng was available, a good way in practice to perform a png optimization is to use a combination of 2 tools in sequence for optimal compression: one which optimizes filters (and removes ancillary chunks), and one which optimizes DEFLATE. Although pngout offers both, only one type of filter can be specified in a single run, therefore it can be used with a wrapper tool or in combination with pngcrush, acting as a re-deflater, like advdef.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: For removing ancillary chunks, most PNG optimization tools have the ability to remove all color correction data from PNG files (gamma, white balance, ICC color profile, standard RGB color profile). This often results in much smaller file sizes. For example, the following command line options achieve this with pngcrush:


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: pngcrush, pngout, and zopflipng all offer options applying one of the filter types 0–4 globally (using the same filter type for all lines) or with a "pseudo filter" (numbered 5), which for each line chooses one of the filter types 0–4 using an adaptive algorithm. Zopflipng offers 3 different adaptive method, including a brute-force search that attempts to optimize the filtering.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: pngout and zopflipng provide an option to preserve/reuse the line-by-line filter set present in the input image.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: pngcrush and zopflipng provide options to try different filter strategies in a single run and choose the best. The freeware command line version of pngout doesn't offer this, but the commercial version, pngoutwin, does.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Zopfli and the LZMA SDK provide DEFLATE implementations that can produce higher compression ratios than the zlib reference implementation at the cost of performance. AdvanceCOMP's codice_31 and codice_32 can use either of these libraries to re-compress PNG files. Additionally, PNGOUT contains its own proprietary DEFLATE implementation.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: codice_31 doesn't have an option to apply filters and always uses filter 0 globally (leaving the image data unfiltered); therefore it should not be used where the image benefits significantly from filtering. By contrast, codice_32 from the same package doesn't deal with PNG structure and acts only as a re-deflater, retaining any existing filter settings.


title: Portable Network Graphics

text: Since icons intended for Windows Vista and later versions may contain PNG subimages, the optimizations can be applied to them as well. At least one icon editor, Pixelformer, is able to perform a special optimization pass while saving ICO files, thereby reducing their sizes. FileOptimizer (mentioned above) can also handle ICO files.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: , also known by the "wasei-eigo" construction , is a genre of Japanese media focusing on intimate relationships between female characters. While lesbianism is a commonly associated theme, the genre is also inclusive of works depicting emotional and spiritual relationships between women that are not necessarily romantic or sexual in nature. "Yuri" is most commonly associated with anime and manga, though the term has also been used to describe video games, light novels, and literature.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Themes associated with "yuri" originate from Japanese lesbian fiction of the early twentieth century, notably the writings of Nobuko Yoshiya and literature in the Class S genre. Manga depicting female homoeroticism began to appear in the 1970s in the works of artists associated with the Year 24 Group, notably Ryoko Yamagishi and Riyoko Ikeda. The genre gained wider popularity beginning in the 1990s; the founding of "Yuri Shimai" in 2003 as the first manga magazine devoted exclusively to "yuri", followed by its successor "Comic Yuri Hime" in 2005, led to the establishment of "yuri" as a discrete publishing genre and the creation of a "yuri" fan culture.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: As a genre, "yuri" does not inherently target a single gender demographic, unlike its male homoerotic counterparts "yaoi" (marketed towards a female audience) and gay manga (marketed towards a gay male audience). Although "yuri" originated as a genre targeted towards a female audience, "yuri" works have been produced that target a male audience, as in manga from "Comic Yuri Hime"s male-targeted sister magazine "Comic Yuri Hime S".


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The word translates literally to "lily", and is a relatively common Japanese feminine name. White lilies have been used since the Romantic era of Japanese literature to symbolize beauty and purity in women, and are a "de facto" symbol of the "yuri" genre.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: In 1976, , editor of the gay men's magazine , used the term in reference to female readers of the magazine in a column of letters titled . While not all women whose letters appeared in "Yurizoku no Heya" were lesbians, and it is unclear whether the column was the first instance of the term "yuri" in this context, an association of "yuri" with lesbianism subsequently developed. For example, the "tanbi" magazine began publishing in July 1983 as a personal ad column for "lesbiennes" to communicate.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The term came to be associated with lesbian pornographic manga beginning in the 1990s, notably through the manga magazine "Lady's Comic Misuto" (1996–1999), which heavily featured symbolic lily flowers. When the term "yuri" began being used in the west in the 1990s, it was similarly used almost exclusively to describe pornographic manga aimed at male readers featuring lesbian couples. Over time, the term drifted from this pornographic connotation to describe the portrayal of intimate love, sex, or emotional connections between women, and became broadly recognized as a genre name for works depicting same-sex female intimacy in the mid-2000s following the founding of the specialized "yuri" manga magazines "Yuri Shimai" and "Comic Yurihime". The Western use of "yuri" subsequently broadened beginning in the 2000s, picking up connotations from the Japanese use. American publishing companies such as ALC Publishing and Seven Seas Entertainment have also adopted the Japanese usage of the term to classify their "yuri" manga publications.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: In Korea and China, "lily" is used as a semantic loan from the Japanese usage to describe female-female romance media, where each use the direct translation of the term – "baekhap" (백합) in Korea and "bǎihé" (百合) in China.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The "wasei-eigo" construction and its abbreviation "GL" were adopted by Japanese publishers in the 2000s, likely as an antonym of the male-male romance genre boys' love (BL). While the term is generally considered synonymous with "yuri", in rare cases it is used to denote "yuri" media that is sexually explicit, following the publication of the erotic "yuri" manga anthology "Girls Love" by Ichijinsha in 2011. However, this distinction is infrequently made, and "yuri" and "girls' love" are almost always used interchangeably.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: In the 1990s, western fans began to use the term to describe "yuri" works that do not depict explicit sex. Its usage was modeled after the western appropriation of the term to describe "yaoi" works that do not feature sexually explicit content. In Japan, the term "shōjo-ai" is not used with this meaning, and instead denotes pedophilic relationships between adult men and girls, with a similar meaning to the term "lolicon".


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Among the first Japanese authors to produce works about love between women was Nobuko Yoshiya, a novelist active in the Taishō and Shōwa periods. Yoshiya was a pioneer in Japanese lesbian literature, including the early twentieth century Class S genre. Her works popularized many of the ideas and tropes which drove the "yuri" genre for years to come. Class S stories depict lesbian attachments as emotionally intense yet platonic relationships, destined to be curtailed by graduation from school, marriage, or death. The root of this genre is in part the contemporary belief that same-sex love was a transitory and normal part of female development leading into heterosexuality and motherhood. Class S developed in the 1930s through Japanese girls' magazines, but declined as a result of state censorship brought about by the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Though homosociality between girls would re-emerge as a common theme in post-war "shōjo" manga (comics for girls), Class S gradually declined in popularity in favor of works focused on male-female romances.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Traditionally, Class S stories focus on strong emotional bonds between an upperclassman and an underclassman, or in rare cases, between a student and her teacher. Private all-girls schools are a common setting for Class S stories, which are depicted as an idyllic homosocial world reserved for women. Works in the genre focus heavily on the beauty and innocence of their protagonists, a theme that would recur in "yuri". Critics have alternately considered Class S as a distinct genre from "yuri", as a "proto-"yuri"", and a component of "yuri".


title: Yuri (genre)

text: In 1970, manga artist Masako Yashiro published the "shōjo" manga , which focuses on a love triangle between two girls and a boy. Noted as the first non-Class S manga to depict an intimate relationship between women, "Shīkuretto Rabu" is regarded by some scholars as the first work in the "yuri" genre. As both Yashiro and "Shīkuretto Rabu" are relatively obscure and the work focuses in part on male-female romance, most critics identify "Shiroi Heya no Futari" by Ryōko Yamagishi, published in 1971, as the first "yuri" manga. The 1970s also saw "shōjo" manga that dealt with transgender characters and characters who blur gender distinctions through cross-dressing, which was inspired in part by the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female theater troupe where women play male roles. These traits are most prominent in Riyoko Ikeda's works, including "The Rose of Versailles" (1972–1973), "Dear Brother" (1975), and "Claudine" (1978). Some "shōnen" works of this period featured lesbian characters, though they were typically depicted as fanservice and comic relief.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Roughly a dozen "yuri" manga were published from the 1970s to the early 1990s, with the majority being published in the 1970s. Most of these stories are tragedies, focused on doomed relationships that end in separation or death. Owing to the small number of works published during this period and their generally tragic focus, "Yuri Shimai" has referred to the 1970s and 1980s as the "dark age" of "yuri". Several theories have emerged to explain the bias towards tragic narratives present in this period. Writer and translator Frederik L. Schodt notes that the majority of "shōjo" manga published during this period were tragic, regardless of whether or not they were "yuri". James Welker of Kanagawa University argues that these narratives represent a form of "lesbian panic", where the character – and by extension, the author – refuses their own lesbian feelings and desires. Verena Maser suggests that the decline of Class S removed the only context in which intimate relationships between women were possible, while Yukari Fujimoto suggests that patriarchal forces were responsible for tragic endings in "Crimson Rose and Candy" stories.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: By the 1990s, tragic story formulas in manga had declined in popularity. 1992 saw the release of two major works for the development of "yuri": "Jukkai me no Jukkai" (1992) by , which began to move the genre away from tragic outcomes and stereotyped dynamics; and the anime adaptation of "Sailor Moon" (1991–1997) by Naoko Takeuchi, the first mainstream manga and anime series to feature a "positive" portrayal of a lesbian relationship in the coupling of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. The immense popularity of "Sailor Moon" allowed the series to be adapted into anime, films, and to be exported internationally, significantly influencing the "shōjo" and "yuri" genres. Uranus and Neptune became popular subjects of "dōjinshi" (self-published manga, analogous to fan comics) and contributed to the development of "yuri dōjinshi" culture.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The success of "Sailor Moon" significantly influenced the development of "yuri", and by the mid-1990s, anime, and manga featuring intimate relationships between women enjoyed mainstream success and popularity. "Sailor Moon" director Kunihiko Ikuhara went on to create "Revolutionary Girl Utena" (1997–1999), a "shōjo" anime series with female same-sex relationships as a central focus. This period also saw a revival of the Class S genre through the best-selling light novel series "Maria-sama ga Miteru" (1998–2004) by , which by 2010 had 5.4 million copies in print. Another prominent author of this period is Kaho Nakayama, active since the early 1990s, with works involving love stories among women. The first Japanese magazines specifically targeted towards lesbians, many of which contained sections featuring "yuri" manga, also emerged during this period. Stories in these magazines ranged from high school romance to lesbian life and love and featured varying degrees of sexual content.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Faced with a proliferation of stories focused on homosociality, homoeroticism, and female homosexuality, some publishers sought to exploit the "yuri" market by creating manga magazines dedicated to the genre, coalescing around "yuri" as the preferred name for this genre in response to its popularity in "dōjinshi" culture. In 2003, "Yuri Tengoku" and "Yuri Shimai" launched as the first manga magazines devoted exclusively to "yuri". This was followed by the female reader-oriented "Comic Yuri Hime" in 2005 and the male reader-oriented "Comic Yuri Hime S" in 2007; the two magazines merged under the title "Comic Yuri Hime" in 2010.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Stories in these magazines dealt with a range of themes, from intense emotional connections such as those depicted in "Voiceful" (2004–2006), to sexually-explicit schoolgirl romances like those portrayed in "First Love Sisters" (2003–2008), and realistic tales about love between adult women such as those seen in "The Conditions of Paradise" (2007). Some of these subjects are seen in male-targeted works of this period as well, sometimes in combination with other themes, including mecha and science fiction. Examples include series such as "Kannazuki no Miko" (2004–2005), "Blue Drop" (2004–2008), and "" (2004–2007). In addition, male-targeted stories tend to make extensive use of "moe" and "bishōjo" characterizations.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The publication of "yuri" magazines had the effect of nurturing a ""yuri" culture" that influenced artists to create works depicting female same-sex relationships. Further, articles in these magazines contributed to the history of the genre by retroactively labeling certain works as "yuri", thus developing "a historical canon of the "yuri" genre." Specifically, Verena Maser notes in her analysis of issues of "Yuri Shimai", "Comic Yurihime", and "Comic Yurihime S" published from 2003 to 2012 that eight of the ten most-referenced series in the magazines predate the 2003 formalization of "yuri" as a publishing genre: "Apurōzu - Kassai" (1981–1985), "Sakura no Sono" (1985–1986), "Sailor Moon" (1992–1996), "Cardcaptor Sakura" (1996–2000), "Revolutionary Girl Utena" (1997–1999), "Maria-sama ga Miteru" (1998–2012), "Loveless" (2002–present), and "Strawberry Marshmallow" (2002–present).


title: Yuri (genre)

text: While schoolgirl romances remained popular into the 2010s and 2020s, notably "Kase-san" (2010–2017), "Citrus" (2012–2018), "Bloom Into You" (2015–2019), and "Whisper Me a Love Song" (2019–present), "yuri" works during this period began to incorporate new genres, themes, and subject material. The mid-2010s saw "yuri" works expand to genres such as science fiction and "isekai", as well as the formalization of as a subgenre focused on stories involving adult women. The growth of digital platforms like Pixiv, Twitter, and Shōsetsuka ni Narō allowed for the creation and widespread distribution of "yuri" works outside of traditional manga magazine and "dōjinshi" publishing: "My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness" (2016) was originally published as a web comic, while the "yuri" fantasy works "Sexiled" (2018–2019), "Roll Over and Die" (2018–present), and "I'm in Love with the Villainess" (2018–present) began as web novels on Shōsetsuka ni Narō before being adapted into other mediums. "Yuri" stories by openly lesbian creators also became more prominent, such as "My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness".


title: Yuri (genre)

text: "Yuri" as a genre depicts intimate relationships between women, a scope that is broadly defined to include romantic love, intense friendships, spiritual love, and rivalry. While lesbianism is a theme commonly associated with "yuri", not all characters in "yuri" media are necessarily non-heterosexual; Welker summarizes that whether "yuri" characters are lesbians is a "very complicated issue." The question of whether a character in a "yuri" work is a lesbian or bisexual can only be determined if the character describes themselves in these terms, though the majority "yuri" works do not explicitly define the sexual orientation of their characters, and instead leave the matter to reader interpretation. Rica Takashima notes Western and Japanese fans often have differing expectations for the level of intimacy depicted in "yuri", which she ascribes to cultural differences between the groups. She notes that "yuri" works that enjoy international popularity tend to be explicit and focused on "cute girls making out with each other," while Japanese fans "have a propensity for reading between the lines, picking up on subtle cues, and using their own imaginations to weave rich tapestries of meaning from small threads."


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Though "yuri" has been historically and thematically linked to "shōjo" manga since its emergence in the 1970s, "yuri" works have been published in all demographic groups for manga – not only "shōjo" (girls), but also "josei" (adult women), "shōnen" (boys) and "seinen" (adult men). "Shōjo" "yuri" works tend to focus on fanciful and fairy tale-inspired narratives that idolize Takarazuka Revue-inspired "girl prince" characters, while "yuri" works in the "josei" demographic tend to depict same-sex female couples with a greater degree of realism. "Shōnen" and "seinen" manga, conversely, tend to use "yuri" to depict relationships between "innocent schoolgirls" and "predatory lesbians". Manga magazines dedicated exclusively to "yuri" tend not to conform to any one specific demographic, and are thus inclusive of content ranging from schoolgirl romances to sexually-explicit content.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Often, works that are perceived and categorized as "yuri" in Japan are not regarded as such by international audiences. For example, while in the west "Sailor Moon" is regarded as a magical girl series with some "yuri" elements, in Japan the series is regarded by "yuri" magazines as a "monumental work" of the genre. The "Sailor Moon" example further illustrates how fans, rather than publishers or creators, often determine whether a work is "yuri"; "Sailor Moon" was not conceived as a "yuri" manga or anime, but "became a "yuri" text" based on how the work was interpreted and consumed by "yuri" fans.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: "Yuri" works generally do not depict graphic sex scenes. Unlike "yaoi", where explicit depictions of sexual acts are commonplace and stories typically climax with the central couple engaging in anal intercourse, sexual acts in "yuri" are rarely more explicit than kissing and the caressing of breasts. Kazumi Nagaike of Oita University argues that this general avoidance of sex "does not mean that female sexual desire is effaced" in "yuri", but rather that the absence of sex "clearly derives from the importance which is placed on the spiritual female-female bond."


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The majority of "yuri" stories published in the 1970s and 1980s were tragedies, focused on doomed relationships that end in separation or death (see above). Yukari Fujimoto, a manga scholar at Meiji University, notes that the tragic plot of "Shiroi Heya no Futari" became a common "yuri" story archetype that she dubs "Crimson Rose and Candy". These stories depict "Candy", a physically smaller character with lighter hair and a naive personality, who admires "Rose", who is generally taller, with long dark hair and a serious demeanor. The characters bond over a common unhappiness, usually originating from their respective home lives. The attachment between Candy and Rose becomes the subject of rumors or even blackmail, even while Candy and Rose grow to acknowledge that their relationship has become romantic. The story concludes with Rose dying in order to protect Candy from scandal. While tragic story formulas in "yuri" declined in popularity by the 1990s, the Rose and Candy archetypes continue to influence contemporary "yuri" stories, particularly those that depict "senpai" and "kōhai" relationships such as "Bloom Into You".


title: Yuri (genre)

text: In Japanese lesbian culture, the participants in a lesbian relationship are occasionally referred to as , which designates the active participant, and , which designates the submissive participant. This distinction is comparable to that of the "seme" and "uke" distinction in "yaoi", or to the butch and femme distinction in broader lesbian culture. Characters in contemporary "yuri" rarely conform to these dichotomies, though the dynamic of an active partner and a passive partner that the "tachi" and "neko" distinction represents does recur in the genre.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, some Japanese lesbian lifestyle magazines contained manga sections, including the now-defunct magazines "Anise" (1996–97, 2001–03) and "Phryné" (1995). "Carmilla", an erotic lesbian publication, released an anthology of lesbian manga called "Girl's Only". Additionally, "Mist" (1996–99), a ladies' comic manga magazine, contained sexually explicit lesbian-themed manga as part of a section dedicated to lesbian-interest topics.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The first publication marketed exclusively as "yuri" was Sun Magazine's manga anthology magazine "Yuri Shimai", which was released between June 2003 and November 2004 in quarterly installments, ending with only five issues. After the magazine's discontinuation, "Comic Yuri Hime" was launched by Ichijinsha in July 2005 as a revival of the magazine, containing manga by many of the authors who had had work serialized in "Yuri Shimai". Like its predecessor, "Comic Yuri Hime" was also published quarterly but went on to release bi-monthly on odd months from January 2011 to December 2016, after which it became monthly. A sister magazine to "Comic Yuri Hime", named "Comic Yuri Hime S", was launched as a quarterly publication by Ichijinsha in June 2007. Unlike either "Yuri Shimai" or "Comic Yuri Hime", "Comic Yuri Hime S" was targeted towards a male audience. However, in 2010 it was merged with "Comic Yuri Hime". Ichijinsha published light novel adaptations from "Comic Yuri Hime" works and original "yuri" novels under their "shōjo" light novel line "Ichijinsha Bunko Iris" starting in July 2008.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Once "Comic Yuri Hime" helped establish the market, several other "yuri" anthologies were released, such as "", "Hirari", "Mebae", "Yuri Drill", "Yuri + Kanojo", and "Eclair". Houbunsha also published their own "yuri" magazine, "Tsubomi", from February 2009 to December 2012 for a total of 21 issues. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the creator-owned "yuri" anthology magazine "Galette" was launched in 2017.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The first company to release lesbian-themed manga in North America was Yuricon's publishing arm ALC Publishing. Their works include Rica Takashima's "Rica 'tte Kanji!?" (1995–1996) and their annual "yuri" manga anthology "Yuri Monogatari", both of which were published in 2003. The latter collects stories by American, European, and Japanese creators, including Akiko Morishima, Althea Keaton, Kristina Kolhi, Tomomi Nakasora, and Eriko Tadeno. These works range from fantasy stories to more realistic tales dealing with themes such as coming out and sexual orientation.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Besides ALC Publishing, the Los Angeles-based Seven Seas Entertainment has also incurred in the genre, with the English version of well known titles such as "" (2004–2007) and "Strawberry Panic!" (2003–2007). On October 24, 2006, Seven Seas announced the launch of their specialized "yuri" manga line, which includes titles such as "Strawberry Panic!", "The Last Uniform" (2004–2006), and "Comic Yuri Hime"'s compilations such as "Voiceful" (2004–2006) and "First Love Sisters" (2003–2008). Between 2011 and 2013, the now-defunct JManga released several "yuri" titles to its digital subscription platform, before terminating service on March 13, 2013. As of 2017, Viz Media and Yen Press began publishing "yuri" manga, with Tokyopop following in 2018. Kodansha Comics announced its debut into publishing both "yuri" and "yaoi" manga in 2019, as well as Digital Manga launching a new imprint specializing in "yuri" "dōjin" manga.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: As "yuri" gained further recognition outside Japan, some artists began creating original English-language manga that were labeled as "yuri" or having "yuri" elements and subplots. Early examples of original English-language "yuri" comics include "Steady Beat" (2003) by Rivkah LaFille and "12 Days" (2006) by June Kim, which were published between 2005 and 2006. Additionally, more English-developed visual novels and indie games have marketed themselves as "yuri" games. This has been aided by the "Yuri Game Jam", a game jam established in 2015 that takes place annually.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: By the mid-2010s, "yuri" video games also began to be officially translated into English. In 2015, MangaGamer announced they would be releasing "A Kiss for the Petals", the first license of a "yuri" game to have an English translation. MangaGamer went on to publish "Kindred Spirits on the Roof" in 2016, which was one of the first adult visual novels to be released uncensored on the Steam store.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: While "yuri" originated in female-targeted ("shōjo", "josei") works, the genre has evolved over time to also target a male audience. Various studies have been undertaken to examine the demography of "yuri" fandom.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: The first magazine to study the demographics of its readers was "Yuri Shimai" (2003–2004), who estimated the proportion of women at almost 70%, and that the majority of them were either teenagers or women in their thirties who were already interested in "shōjo" and "yaoi" manga. In 2008, Ichijinsha made a demographic study for its two magazines "Comic Yuri Hime" and "Comic Yuri Hime S", the first being targeted to women, the second to men. The study reveals that women accounted for 73% of "Comic Yuri Hime" readership, while in "Comic Yuri Hime S", men accounted for 62%. The publisher noted, however, that readers of the latter magazine also tended to read the first, which led to their merger in 2010. Regarding the age of women for "Comic Yuri Hime", 27% of them were under 20 years old, 27% were between 20 and 24 years old, 23% were between 25 and 29 years old, and 23% over 30 years old. As of 2017, the ratio between men and women is said to have shifted to about 6:4, thanks in part to the "Comic Yuri Hime S" merge and the mostly male readership "YuruYuri" brought with it.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Verena Maser conducted a study of Japanese "yuri" fandom demographics between September and October 2011. This study, mainly oriented towards the "Yuri Komyu!" community and the social network Mixi, received a total of 1,352 valid responses. The study found that 52.4% of respondents were women, 46.1% were men and 1.6% did not identify with either gender. The sexuality of the participants was also requested, separated into two categories: "heterosexual" and "non-heterosexual". The results were as follows: 30% were non-heterosexual women, 15.2% were heterosexual women, 4.7% were non-heterosexual men, 39.5% were heterosexual men, and 1.2% identified as "other". Regarding age, 69% of respondents were between 16 and 25 years old. Maser's study reinforced the notion of the "yuri" fandom being split somewhat equally between men and women, as well as highlighting the differing sexualities within it.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: While the term "yuri" is synonymous with lesbianism in the west, the relationship between "yuri" and lesbianism is more tenuous in Japan. While "yuri" was strongly associated with lesbianism in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, the correlation between the terms has weakened over time. Though Japanese fans, journalists, and publishers recognize that "yuri" and lesbianism share common characteristics, they are often specifically segregated as concepts, with "Comic Yurihime" editor Seitarō Nakamura stating that "in general, ["yuri" is] not [about] lesbians with a carnal relationship." Japanese lesbian and queer magazines in the 1990s often opposed the conflation of "yuri" with lesbianism, likely due to its prior connotation with male-oriented pornography.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Erin Subramian of Yuricon explains that most Japanese people see the term "lesbian" as describing either "abnormal people in pornography or strange people in other countries." Maser concurs that "yuri" is a genre primarily focused on ideals of beauty, purity, innocence, and spirituality before sexual identity; focus is placed on "connection between hearts" rather than "connection between bodies." Nagaike notes in her analysis of letters published in "Comic Yuri Hime" that many female readers of the magazine identify as heterosexual; she thus argues "yuri" is more closely aligned with homosociality than it is with homosexuality, even if the two concepts are not mutually exclusive.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: Nagaike argues that "yuri" is a byproduct of the , which formed in pre-war all-girls schools in Japan. Isolated from the influence of patriarchy, adolescent girls created a ""shōjo" culture" that used Class S literature to disseminate and share homosocial cultural codes. Though this culture was significant in informing girls' attitudes about femininity and independence, it was ultimately ephemeral; upon leaving the single-sex school environment, girls became subject to patriarchal expectations of marriage and family.


title: Yuri (genre)

text: As mixed-sex education became more common in the post-war era and Class S literature declined as a means to disseminate homosocial bonds, cross-dressing and "yaoi" emerged as the primary modes in literature for women to criticize and resist patriarchy. The emergence of "yuri" allowed for a return to Class S-style homosociality, of which homosexuality is a component. Thus, Nagaike asserts that "yuri" does not conform to the political vision of lesbianism espoused by philosophers like Monique Wittig that sees lesbianism as overthrowing "the political and sociological interpretation of women's identity;" rather, "yuri" is closer to Adrienne Rich's vision of a "lesbian continuum" that seeks to overthrow compulsory heterosexuality.


title: Elmo

text: Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/HBO children's television show "Sesame Street". A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prior to 2017) on "Sesame Street", "Elmo's World", which is aimed at toddlers. He was most often puppeteered by Kevin Clash, but since his resignation in late 2012, he has been puppeteered by Ryan Dillon.


title: Elmo

text: Elmo is self-described as three-and-a-half years old and his birthday is on February 3. Elmo characteristically avoids pronouns in reference to himself, instead referring to himself in the third person (e.g. saying "Elmo wants this" instead of "I want this"). "Sesame Street" staff writer Nancy Sans once described Elmo's origins: "There was this extra red puppet lying around and the cast would pick him up sometimes and try to create a personality, but nothing seemed to materialize."


title: Elmo

text: The character of Elmo was originally conceived as a supporting character and background character in 1979, first appearing in the "Sesame Street" song "We Are All Monsters", which first aired in a Season 11 episode during 1980. Elmo became a named and recurring character on "Sesame Street" (during the street storylines) sometime later that season, although he still appeared as a supporting character in segments in later episodes of the show at the time. The character was performed by a rotating ensemble of Muppet performers such as Jerry Nelson and Kathryn Mullen while he was a background character in such "Sesame Street" segments from 1980 to 1984. As a named character, Elmo was performed by Brian Muehl from 1980 to 1984, and later Richard Hunt from 1984 to 1985 upon Muehl's departure. However, in 1985, Hunt was so frustrated with the puppet, he squeezed it and threw it at Kevin Clash, who then performed Elmo. Clash said that Elmo should be a character who is kind and loving. Sans continues that "one day in 1985, Kevin Clash, a talented puppeteer, raised him up and brought energy and life into Elmo and from that day forward we would all write for Elmo. Kevin's performance inspired the writers to develop Elmo's character". John Tartaglia, Matt Vogel, and Jim Martin have all been secondary performers for the character, providing movement for Elmo's arms and legs, particularly in green-screen shots.


title: Elmo

text: Alongside Cookie Monster, Elmo has appeared in "The Furchester Hotel", where he is taking an extended stay because of his fascination with the Furchester Hotel. His father Louie is the brother of Funella Furchester.


title: Elmo

text: On May 27, 2020, "The Not Too Late Show with Elmo" premiered on HBO Max. The series stars Elmo as the host of his own late-night talk show.


title: Elmo

text: After becoming a regular guest on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", Elmo began touring the talk-show circuit. He has appeared on "Martha Stewart Living" and "Martha", "The Tony Danza Show", "Rove Live", "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!", and "The View". Elmo and a developmental expert gave babysitting tips on the June 18, 2005, episode of "Teen Kids News". He has also appeared on "Emeril Live", helping Emeril make (non-alcoholic) eggnog during a Holiday Special shown in December 2008. Kevin Clash and Aaron Neville were also guests on this show. On a special episode of "Oprah" called "The Faces Behind the Famous Names", Kevin Clash and Elmo appeared at the same time.


title: Elmo

text: Elmo was the star of the 1999 full-length, theatrically released motion picture "The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland". He also starred in the film "Elmo Saves Christmas".


title: Elmo

text: Elmo also appeared in a fifth-season episode of "The West Wing" along with his friends Zoe and Big Bird. In that episode, Elmo receives a medical checkup from Abbey Bartlet, the First Lady (who is making a guest appearance on "Sesame Street"), and cheekily questions her about the validity of her medical license.


title: Elmo

text: Elmo also appeared in the eighth-season episode of "Scrubs", "My ABC's", along with Oscar the Grouch, Grover, and an Anything Muppet named "Ex Ray". All four characters are in separate fantasies of J.D.'s in the episode.


title: Elmo

text: At the request and with the assistance of Rep. Duke Cunningham, he testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education in April 2002, urging support for increased funding in music education.


title: Elmo

text: "Emeril and Elmo's Healthy Start" was a special featuring Elmo and Emeril Lagasse that aired on November 4, 2005, at 8 p.m. as part of the Food Network's second annual "Cook With Your Kids Week". The special was produced in conjunction with Sesame Workshop's Healthy Habits for Life program.


title: Elmo

text: Some fans of "Sesame Street" have complained that Elmo's prominent status has caused roles to be greatly reduced for several older characters, such as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Grover, Count von Count, and Prairie Dawn. Elmo has been referred to as the "Little Red Menace" by several "Sesame Street" traditionalists. Some fans also blame Elmo for the semi-permanent departure of Kermit the Frog from "Sesame Street".


title: Elmo

text: In its FAQ, the Sesame Workshop addresses the allegation that Elmo referring to himself in the third person will teach children improper English, by stating that this behavior "mimics the behavior of many preschoolers. Like 3-year-olds, he doesn't always have the skills or knowledge to speak proper English."


title: Dowsing

text: Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations (radiesthesia), gravesites, malign "earth vibrations" and many other objects and materials without the use of a scientific apparatus. It is also known as divining (especially in water divining), doodlebugging (particularly in the United States, in searching for petroleum or treasure) or (when searching for water) water finding, or water witching (in the United States).


title: Dowsing

text: A Y-shaped twig or rod, or two L-shaped ones—individually called a dowsing rod, divining rod (Latin: "virgula divina" or "baculus divinatorius"), vining rod, or witching rod—are sometimes used during dowsing, although some dowsers use other equipment or no equipment at all. The motion of such dowsing devices is generally attributed to the ideomotor phenomenon, a psychological response where a subject makes motions unconsciously. Put simply, dowsing rods respond to the user's accidental or involuntary movements.


title: Dowsing

text: The scientific evidence is that dowsing is no more effective than random chance. It is therefore regarded as a pseudoscience.


title: Dowsing

text: Dowsing originated in ancient times, when it was treated as a form of divination. The Catholic Church, however, banned the practice completely.


title: Dowsing

text: Reformer Martin Luther perpetuated the Catholic ban, in 1518 listing divining for metals as an act that broke the first commandment (i.e., as occultism).


title: Dowsing

text: Old texts about searching for water do not mention using the divining twig, and the first account of this practice was in 1568.


title: Dowsing

text: In 1662, divining with rods was declared to be "superstitious, or rather satanic" by a Jesuit, Gaspar Schott, though he later noted that he was not sure that the devil was always responsible for the movement of the rod. In southern France in the seventeenth century it was used in tracking criminals and heretics. Its abuse led to a decree of the inquisition in 1701, forbidding its employment for purposes of justice.


title: Dowsing

text: An epigram by Samuel Sheppard, from "Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick" (1651) runs thus:


title: Dowsing

text: Despite religious disapproval, dowsing was practiced in Germany during the sixteenth century much as it is practiced today, when it was used in attempts to find metals. The 1550 edition of Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia" contains a woodcut of a dowser with forked rod in hand walking over a cutaway image of a mining operation. The rod is labeled in Latin and German; ""Virgula Divina – Glück-Rüt"" (Rod Divine, Luck-Rod), but there is no text accompanying the woodcut. By 1556, Georgius Agricola's treatment of mining and smelting of ore, "De Re Metallica", included a detailed description of dowsing for metal ore.


title: Dowsing

text: In the sixteenth century, German deep mining technology was in enormous demand all over Europe. German miners were licensed to live and work in England; particularly in the Stannaries (tin mines) of Devon and Cornwall and in Cumbria. In other parts of England, the technique was used in the royal mines for calamine. By 1638 German miners were recorded using the technique in silver mines in Wales.


title: Dowsing

text: The Middle Low German name for a forked stick (Y-rod) was "Schlag-Ruthe" ("striking rod"). This was translated in the sixteenth century Cornish dialect to "duschen" ("duschan" according to William Barrett) (Middle English, to "strike" or fall). By the seventeenth century the English term "dowsing" was coming into common use.


title: Dowsing

text: In the lead-mining area of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England in the seventeenth century the natural philosopher Robert Boyle, inspired by the writings of Agricola, watched a practitioner try to find "latent veins of metals". Boyle saw the hazel divining rod (""virgula divinatoria"") stoop in the hands of the diviner, who protested that he was not applying any force to the twig; Boyle accepted the man's genuine belief but himself remained unconvinced. Towards the end of the century, in 1691 the philosopher John Locke, who was born in the English West Country, used the term "deusing-rod" for the Old Latin name "virgula divina". So, "dowse" is synonymous with "strike", hence the phrases: to "dowse"/"strike" a light, to "dowse"/"strike" a sail.


title: Dowsing

text: Dowsing was conducted in South Dakota in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to help homesteaders, farmers, and ranchers locate water wells on their property.


title: Dowsing

text: The military have occasionally resorted to dowsing techniques. In the First World War Gallipoli campaign, sapper Kelly became well known for finding water for the British troops. In the late 1960s during the Vietnam War, some United States Marines used dowsing when locating weapons and tunnels. As late as in 1986, when 31 soldiers were taken by an avalanche during an operation in the NATO drill Anchor Express in Vassdalen, Norway, the Norwegian army attempted to locate soldiers buried in the avalanche using dowsing as a search method.


title: Dowsing

text: Dowsing is still used by some farmers and by water engineers in Britain, however many of the United Kingdom's water utilities have since tried to distance themselves from the practice.


title: Dowsing

text: Early attempts at an explanation of dowsing were based on the notion that the divining rod was physically affected by emanations from substances of interest. The following explanation is from William Pryce's 1778 "Mineralogia Cornubiensis":


title: Dowsing

text: A study towards the end of the nineteenth century concluded that the phenomenon was attributed to cryptesthesia, where the practitioner makes unconscious observations of the terrain and involuntarily influences the movement of the rod. Early investigations by members of the Society for Psychical Research endorsed this view.


title: Dowsing

text: Committed parapsychologist G. N. M. Tyrrell also believed that the action of the rod was caused by involuntary muscular movements and debunked the theory of external influences.


title: Dowsing

text: However dowsing over maps, prior to visiting the site, was also believed to work, and so some kind of clairvoyance was proposed. This was believed to act on the nervous system, rather than on the muscles directly. These various mechanisms remain in contention among dowsers.


title: Dowsing

text: In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries a number of dowsing-like devices were marketed for modern police and military use, primarily as explosive detectors, such as the ADE 651, Sniffex, and the GT200. In consequence of these frauds, in 1999 the United States National Institute of Justice issued advice against buying equipment based on dowsing.


title: Dowsing

text: The device used by a dowser is typically referred to as a dowsing or divining rod, even though it may not be rod-shaped.


title: Dowsing

text: Traditionally, the most common method used is the dowsing twig, a forked (Y-shaped) branch from a tree or bush. Some dowsers prefer branches from particular trees, and some prefer the branches to be freshly cut. Hazel twigs in Europe and witch-hazel in the United States are traditionally commonly chosen, as are branches from willow or peach trees. The two ends on the forked side are held one in each hand with the third (the stem of the Y) pointing straight ahead. The dowser then walks slowly over the places where he suspects the target (for example, minerals or water) may be, and the dowsing rod is expected to dip, incline or twitch when a discovery is made. This method is sometimes known as "willow witching." Some dowsers would hang a golden ring on the edge of the dowsing rod, or split the tip to slide in a silver coin.


title: Dowsing

text: Many dowsers today use a pair of L-shaped metal rods. One rod is held in each hand, with the short arm of the L held upright, and the long arm pointing forward. The upright arm is often free to rotate inside a tube. When something is "found," the rods move in synchrony. Depending on the dowser, they may cross over or swing apart. If the object is long and straight, such as a water pipe, the rods may point in opposite directions, showing its orientation. The rods may be fashioned from wire coat hangers or wire flags used for locating utilities. Glass or plastic rods have also been accepted. Straight rods are also sometimes used for the same purposes, and were not uncommon in early-nineteenth-century New England.


title: Dowsing

text: A pendulum weight on a short cord or thread is the tool of choice for many modern dowsers. The dowser holds the cord in one hand and allows the pendulum to swing freely. The dowser then observes how the pendulum is swinging and interprets the motion to offer insights.


title: Dowsing

text: A 1990 double-blind study was undertaken in Kassel, Germany, under the direction of the "Gesellschaft zur Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften" (Society for the Scientific Investigation of the Parasciences). James Randi offered a US$10,000 prize to any successful dowser. The three-day test of some thirty dowsers involved plastic pipes through which water flow could be controlled and directed. The pipes were buried under a level field, the position of each marked on the surface with a colored strip. The dowsers had to tell whether water was running through each pipe. All the dowsers signed a statement agreeing this was a fair test of their abilities and that they expected a 100% success rate. However, the results were no better than chance, and no one was awarded the prize.


title: Dowsing

text: In a 1987–88 study in Munich by Hans-Dieter Betz and other scientists, 500 dowsers were initially tested for their skill, and the experimenters selected the best 43 among them for further tests. Water was pumped through a pipe on the ground floor of a two-story barn. Before each test, the pipe was moved in a direction perpendicular to the water flow. On the upper floor, each dowser was asked to determine the position of the pipe. Over two years, the dowsers performed 843 such tests and, of the 43 pre-selected and extensively tested candidates, at least 37 showed no dowsing ability. The results from the remaining 6 were said to be better than chance, resulting in the experimenters' conclusion that some dowsers "in particular tasks, showed an extraordinarily high rate of success, which can scarcely if at all be explained as due to chance … a real core of dowser-phenomena can be regarded as empirically proven."


title: Dowsing

text: Five years after the Munich study was published, Jim T. Enright, a professor of physiology who emphasized correct data analysis procedure, contended that the study's results are merely consistent with statistical fluctuations and not significant. He believed the experiments provided "the most convincing disproof imaginable that dowsers can do what they claim", stating that the data analysis was "special, unconventional and customized". Replacing it with "more ordinary analyses", he noted that the "best" dowser was on average out of closer to a mid-line guess, an advantage of 0.04%, and that the five other "good" dowsers were on average farther than a mid-line guess. Enright emphasized that the experimenters should have decided beforehand how to statistically analyze the results; if they only afterward chose the statistical analysis that showed the greatest success, then their conclusions would not be valid until replicated by another test analyzed by the same method. He further pointed out that the six "good" dowsers did not perform any better than chance in separate tests. Another study published in "Pathophysiology" hypothesized that such experiments as this one that were carried out in the twentieth century could have been interfered with by man-made radio frequency radiation, as test subjects' bodies absorbed the radio waves and unconscious hand movement reactions took place following the standing waves or intensity variations.


title: Dowsing

text: Science writers such as William Benjamin Carpenter (1877), Millais Culpin (1920), and Martin Gardner (1957) accept the view of some dowsers that the movement of dowsing rods is the result of unconscious muscular action. This view is widely accepted amongst the scientific community. The dowsing apparatus is known to amplify slight movements of the hands caused by a phenomenon known as the ideomotor response: people's subconscious minds may influence their bodies without consciously deciding to take action. This would make the dowsing rod susceptible to the dowsers' subconscious knowledge or perception; and also to confirmation bias.


title: Dowsing

text: Psychologist David Marks in a 1986 article in "Nature" included dowsing in a list of "effects which until recently were claimed to be paranormal but which can now be explained from within orthodox science." Specifically, dowsing could be explained in terms of sensory cues, expectancy effects, and probability.


title: Dowsing

text: Science writer Peter Daempfle has noted that when dowsing is subjected to scientific testing, it fails. Daempfle has written that although some dowsers claim success, this can be attributed to the underground water table being distributed relatively uniformly in certain areas.


title: Dowsing

text: In regard to dowsing and its use in archaeology, Kenneth Feder has written that "the vast majority of archaeologists don't use dowsing, because they don't believe it works."


title: Dowsing

text: Psychologist Chris French has noted that "dowsing does not work when it is tested under properly controlled conditions that rule out the use of other cues to indicate target location."


title: Dowsing

text: Water dowsers often achieve good results because random chance has a high probability of finding water in favorable terrain.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and was held in France from 4 June until 19 June 1938. the hosts France where eliminated in the quarter-final 3-1 by Italy. Italy defended its title in the final, beating Hungary 4–2. Italy's 1934 and 1938 teams hold the distinction of being the only men's national team to win the World Cup multiple times under the same coach, Vittorio Pozzo. It would be the last World Cup until 1950 due to the disruption from World War II.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: France was chosen as host nation by FIFA in Berlin on 13 August 1936. France was chosen over Argentina and Germany in the first round of voting. The decision to hold a second consecutive tournament in Europe (after Italy in 1934) caused outrage in South America, where it was believed that the venue should alternate between the two continents. This was the last World Cup to be staged before the outbreak of the Second World War.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Because of anger over the decision to hold a second successive World Cup in Europe, neither Uruguay nor Argentina entered the competition. Spain meanwhile could not participate due to the ongoing Spanish Civil War.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: It was the first time that the hosts, France, and the title holders, Italy, qualified automatically. Title holders were given an automatic entry into the World Cup from 1938 until 2002 (inclusive), since abolished.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Of the 14 remaining places, eleven were allocated to Europe, two to the Americas, and one to Asia. As a result, only three non-European nations took part: Brazil, Cuba and the Dutch East Indies. This is the smallest ever number of teams from outside the host continent to compete at a FIFA World Cup.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Austria qualified for the World Cup, but after qualification was complete, the Anschluss united Austria with Germany. Austria subsequently withdrew from the tournament, with some Austrian players joining the German squad, although not including Austrian star player Matthias Sindelar, who refused to play for the unified team. Latvia was the runner-up in Austria's qualification group, but was not invited to participate; instead Austria's place remained empty, and Sweden, which would have been Austria's initial opponent, progressed directly to the second-round by default.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: This tournament saw the first, and the only, participation in a World Cup tournament from Cuba and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). It also saw the World Cup debuts of Poland and Norway. Romania would not qualify for another World Cup until 1970, Poland and the Netherlands would not reappear at a finals tournament until 1974, and Norway would not qualify for another World Cup finals until 1994. A unified Germany team would not appear again until 1994, although Austria returned in 1954 and won third place.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: The following 16 teams originally qualified for the final tournament. However, 15 teams participated after Austria's withdrawal due to the Anschluss.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: The knockout format from 1934 was retained. If a match was tied after 90 minutes, then 30 minutes of extra time were played. If the score was still tied after extra time, the match would be replayed. This was the last World Cup tournament that used a straight knockout format.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Germany, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Cuba and Brazil were seeded for the draw taking place in Paris, on 5 March 1938. Sweden was given a bye due to Austria's withdrawal.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Five of the seven first round matches required extra time to break the deadlock; two games still went to a replay. In one replay, Cuba advanced to the next round at the expense of Romania. In the other replay, Germany, which had led 1–0 in the first game against Switzerland, led 2–0 but eventually was beaten 2–4. This loss, which took place in front of a hostile, bottle-throwing crowd in Paris, was blamed by German coach Sepp Herberger on a defeatist attitude from the five Austrian players he had been forced to include; a German journalist later commented that "Germans and Austrians prefer to play against each other even when they're in the same team". Until they were knocked out in the first round in 2018, this was the only time Germany had failed to advance past the first round.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Sweden advanced directly to the quarter-finals as a result of Austria's withdrawal, and they proceeded to beat Cuba 8–0. The hosts, France, were beaten by the holders, Italy, and Switzerland were seen off by Hungary. Czechoslovakia took Brazil to extra time in a notoriously feisty match in Bordeaux before succumbing in a replay; the South Americans proved too strong for the depleted Czechoslovak side (both Oldřich Nejedlý and František Plánička had suffered broken bones in the first game) and won 2–1. This was the last match to be replayed in a World Cup.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Hungary destroyed Sweden in one of the semi-finals 5–1, while Italy and Brazil had the first of their many important World Cup clashes in the other. The Brazilians were without their star player Leônidas, who was injured, and the Italians won 2–1. Brazil topped Sweden 4–2 for third place.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Rumour has it, before the finals Benito Mussolini was to have sent a telegram to the team, saying "Vincere o morire!" (literally translated as "Win or die!"). This should not have been meant as a literal threat, but instead just an encouragement to win. However, no record remains of such a telegram, and World Cup player Pietro Rava said, when interviewed, "No, no, no, that's not true. He sent a telegram wishing us well, but no never 'win or die'."


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: The final itself took place at the Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris. Vittorio Pozzo's Italian side took the lead early, but Hungary equalised within two minutes. The Italians took the lead again shortly after, and by the end of the first half were leading the Hungarians 3–1. Hungary never really got back into the game. With the final score favouring the Italians 4–2, Italy became the first team to successfully defend the title and were once more crowned World Cup winners.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Because of World War II, the World Cup would not be held for another 12 years, until 1950. As a result, Italy were the reigning World Cup holders for a record 16 years, from 1934 to 1950. The Italian Vice-President of FIFA, Dr. Ottorino Barassi, hid the trophy in a shoe-box under his bed throughout the Second World War and thus saved it from falling into the hands of occupying troops.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: Eleven venues in ten cities were planned to host the tournament; of these, all hosted matches except the Stade de Gerland in Lyon, which did not due to Austria's withdrawal.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: With seven goals, Leônidas was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 84 goals were scored by 42 players, with two of them credited as own goals.


title: 1938 FIFA World Cup

text: In 1986, FIFA published a report that ranked all teams in each World Cup up to and including 1986, based on progress in the competition, overall results and quality of the opposition. The rankings for the 1938 tournament were as follows:


title: Borg

text: The Borg are an alien group that appear as recurring antagonists in the "Star Trek" fictional universe. The Borg are cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) linked in a hive mind called "the Collective". The Borg co-opt the technology and knowledge of other alien species to the Collective through the process of "assimilation": forcibly transforming individual beings into "drones" by injecting nanoprobes into their bodies and surgically augmenting them with cybernetic components. The Borg's ultimate goal is "achieving perfection".


title: Borg

text: Aside from being recurring antagonists in the "" television series, they are depicted as the main threat in the film "". In addition, they played major roles in the "" and "" series.


title: Borg

text: "The Borg" have become a symbol in popular culture for any juggernaut against which "resistance is futile", a common phrase uttered by the Borg.


title: Borg

text: The Borg represented a new antagonist and regular enemy which had been lacking during the first season of "TNG"; the Klingons were allies and the Romulans mostly absent. The Ferengi were originally intended as the new enemy for the United Federation of Planets, but their comical appearance failed to portray them as a convincing threat. The Borg, however, with their frightening appearance, their immense power, and their sinister motive, became the signature villains for the "TNG" and "Voyager" eras of "Star Trek". In "Voyager" episode "", even the near-omnipotent Q tells his son, "Don't provoke the Borg."


title: Borg

text: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ("TNG") writers began to develop the idea of the Borg as early as the Season1 episode "", which introduced a coercive, symbiotic life form that took over key Federation personnel. Plans to feature the Borg as an increasingly menacing threat were subsequently scrapped in favor of a more subtle introduction, beginning with the mystery of missing colonies on both sides of the Neutral Zone in "" and culminating in the encounter between Borg and the "Enterprise" crew in "QWho".


title: Borg

text: The Borg are cyborgs, having outward appearances showing both mechanical and biological body parts. Individual Borg are referred to as drones and move in a robotic, purposeful style ignoring most of their environment, including beings they do not consider an immediate threat. Borg commonly have one eye replaced with a sophisticated ocular implant. Borg usually have one arm replaced with a prosthesis, bearing one of a variety of multipurpose tools in place of a humanoid hand. Since different drones have different roles, the arm may be specialized for myriad purposes such as medical devices, scanners, and weapons. Borg have flat, grayish skin, giving them an almost zombie-like appearance.


title: Borg

text: Some Borg have been shown to be far stronger than humans, able to easily overpower most humans and similar species. Typical Borg have never been seen to run, instead moving in a deliberate fashion, never retreating. Borg are highly resistant to energy-based weapons, having personal shielding that quickly adapts to them. In various episodes, phasers and other directed energy weapons tend to quickly become ineffective as the Borg are able to adapt to the specific frequencies on which these weapons are projected once a ship or an individual drone is struck down by them. Later attempts to modulate phaser and other weapon frequencies have had limited success. Borg shields are ineffective protection against projectile or melee weapons, and several have been defeated in this way, or through hand-to-hand combat.


title: Borg

text: Borg possess a "cortical node" that controls other implanted cybernetic devices within a Borg's body; it is most often implanted in the forehead above the organic eye. If the cortical node fails, the Borg eventually dies. Successful replacement of the node can be carried out on a Borg vessel.


title: Borg

text: Borg civilization is based on a hive or group mind known as the Collective. Each Borg drone is linked to the collective by a sophisticated subspace network that ensures each member is given constant supervision and guidance. The mental energy of the group consciousness can help an injured or damaged drone heal or regenerate damaged body parts or technology. The collective consciousness gives them the ability not only to "share the same thoughts", but also to adapt quickly to new tactics. Drones in the Collective are never seen speaking, but a collective "voice" is sometimes transmitted to ships.


title: Borg

text: Individual Borg rarely speak, although they do send a collective audio message to their targets, stating that "resistance is futile", often followed by a declaration that the target in question will be assimilated and its "biological and technological distinctiveness" will be added to their own. The exact phrasing varies and evolves over the various series episodes and film.


title: Borg

text: Nanoprobes are microscopic machines that inhabit a Borg's body, bloodstream, and many cybernetic implants. The probes maintain the Borg cybernetic systems and repair damage to the organic parts of a Borg. They generate new technology inside a Borg when needed and protect them from many forms of disease. Borg nanoprobes, each about the size of a human red blood cell, travel through the victim's bloodstream and attach to individual cells. The nanoprobes rewrite the cellular DNA, altering the victim's biochemistry, and eventually form larger, more complicated structures and networks within the body, like electrical pathways, processing and data-storage nodes, and ultimately prosthetic devices that spring forth from the skin. In "", Seven of Nine says the Borg assimilated the nanoprobe technology from "Species 149". In addition, the nanoprobes maintain and repair their host's mechanical and biological components on a microscopic level, imparting regenerative capabilities.


title: Borg

text: Though used by the Borg to exert control over another being, reprogrammed nanoprobes were used by the crew of the starship "Voyager" in many instances as medical aids.


title: Borg

text: The capability of nanoprobes to absorb improved technologies they find into the Borg collective is shown in the "Voyager" episode "", where Seven of Nine's nanoprobes are fused with the Doctor's mobile emitter, which uses technology from the 29th century, creating a 29th-century drone existing outside the Collective, with capabilities far surpassing those of the 24th-century drones.


title: Borg

text: The Borg do not try to immediately assimilate any being with which they come into contact; Borg drones tend to completely ignore individuals that are identified as too weak to be an imminent threat or too inferior to be worth assimilating. Captain Picard and his team walk safely past a group of Borg drones in a scene from the film "Star Trek: First Contact" while the drones fulfill a programmed mission. In the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Mortal Coil", Seven of Nine told Neelix the Kazon were "unworthy" of assimilation and would serve only to detract from the Borg's quest for perceived perfection.


title: Borg

text: The Borg are a spacefaring race, and their primary interstellar transport and combat vessel is known as a "Borg Cube" due to its shape. A cube was first seen during the Borg's introduction in the "" episode "Q Who", which established the vessel as vastly exceeding the capability of the "Enterprise" - the main ship of the series and Federation flagship - to defend against or escape it without outside intervention. The episode "" and the film "" both depict single cubes as critical military threats, capable of fighting or defeating an entire fleet of ships.


title: Borg

text: Common capabilities of cubes include high speed warp and transwarp drives, self-regeneration and multiple-redundant systems, adaptability in combat, and various energy weapons as well as tractor beams and cutting beams. As with most other "Star Trek" races, the Borg have transporter capability. Cubes are also distinguished by their immense size and lack of streamlined aesthetic.


title: Borg

text: Assimilation is the process by which the Borg integrate beings, cultures, and technology into the Collective. "You will be assimilated" is one of the few on-screen phrases employed by the Borg when communicating with other species. The Borg are portrayed as having found and assimilated thousands of species and billions to trillions of individual life-forms throughout the galaxy. The Borg designate each species with a number assigned to them upon first contact, humanity being "Species 5618".


title: Borg

text: When first introduced, the Borg are said to be more interested in assimilating technology than people, roaming the universe as single-minded marauders assimilating starships, planets, and entire societies to collect new technology. They are discriminating in this area, finding certain races, for example the Kazon, to be technologically inferior and unworthy of assimilation. A Borg infant found aboard a Borg Cube in "QWho" shows that the Borg will assimilate even children. The Borg then place the assimilated children into maturation chambers to quickly and fully grow them into mature drones.


title: Borg

text: In their second appearance, "", they capture and assimilate Captain Jean-Luc Picard into the Collective, creating Locutus of Borg (meaning "he who has spoken", in Latin).


title: Borg

text: The method of assimilating individual life-forms into the Collective has been represented differently over time. When we see the Borg in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", assimilation is through abduction and then surgical procedure. In "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Star Trek: Voyager", assimilation is through injection of nanoprobes into an individual's bloodstream via a pair of tubules that spring forth from a drone's hand. Assimilation by tubules is depicted on-screen as being a fast-acting process, with the victim's skin pigmentation turning gray and mottled with visible dark tracks forming within moments of contact. After assimilation, a drone's race and gender become "irrelevant". After initial assimilation through injection, Borg are surgically fitted with cybernetic devices. In "Star Trek: First Contact" an assimilated crew member is shown to have a forearm and an eye physically removed and replaced with cybernetic implants.


title: Borg

text: The Borg also assimilate, interface, and reconfigure technology using these tubules and nanoprobes. However, in "QWho" a Borg is depicted apparently trying to assimilate, probe, or reconfigure a control panel in engineering using an energy interface instead of nanoprobes.


title: Borg

text: Some species, for various reasons, are able to resist assimilation by nanoprobes. Species 8472 is the only race shown to be capable of completely rejecting assimilation attempts. Other species, such as the Hirogen, have demonstrated resistance to assimilation as well as Dr Phlox, who was able to partially resist the assimilation process in the "" episode "".


title: Borg

text: Before the film "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996), the Borg exhibited no hierarchical command structure. "First Contact" introduced the Borg Queen, who is not named as such in the film (referring to herself with "I am the Borg. I am the Collective...I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many") but is named Borg Queen in the closing credits. The Queen is played by Alice Krige in this film, in the 2001 finale of "Star Trek: Voyager" "", and in the "" episode "I, Excretus". The character also appeared in Voyager's two-part episodes "" (1999) and "" (2000), but was portrayed by Susanna Thompson. Whether or not these appearances represent the same queen is never specified. The queen appeared to be killed in both "First Contact" and "End Game", so there may be a total of three queens throughout the series. In "First Contact", the Borg Queen is seen during a flashback of Picard's former assimilation, establishing she was present during the events of "Best of Both Worlds".


title: Borg

text: The Borg Queen is the focal point within the Borg collective consciousness and a unique drone within the Collective, who brings "order to chaos", referring to herself as "we" and "I" interchangeably. In "First Contact", the Queen's dialogue suggests she is an expression of the Borg Collective's overall intelligence, not a controller but the avatar of the entire Collective as an individual. This sentiment is contradicted by "Star Trek: Voyager", where she is seen explicitly directing, commanding, and in one instance even overriding the Collective. The introduction of the Queen radically changed the canonical understanding of the Borg function, with the authors of "The Computers of Star Trek" noting: "It was a lot easier for viewers to focus on a villain rather than a hive-mind that made decisions based on the input of all its members." "First Contact" writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore have defended the introduction of the Queen as a dramatic necessity, noting on the film's DVD audio commentary that they had initially written the film with drones, but then found that it was essential for the main characters to have someone to interact with beyond mindless drones.


title: Borg

text: The Borg were introduced on syndicated television on May 8, 1989, in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "QWho", and rose to further prominence in the two-part cliffhanger "Best of Both Worlds, PartI", which aired on June 18, 1990, with the sequel airing on September 24, 1990. In the "Star Trek" in-universe timeline, the earliest the Borg have been displayed is in 1996's "Star Trek: First Contact".


title: Borg

text: Overall, Borg aliens appear in a total of about a hundred episodes of various incarnations of "Star Trek". This number includes all episodes featuring Seven of Nine, a former Borg drone; discounting these appearances, the Borg appear in six episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", one episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", 23 episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager", and one episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise".


title: Borg

text: The Borg first appear in the "" second-season episode "QWho", when the omnipotent life-form Q hurls the "Enterprise"-D across the galaxy to challenge Jean-Luc Picard's assertion that his crew is ready to face the galaxy's dangers and mysteries. The "Enterprise" crew is overwhelmed by the Borg, and Picard begs for and receives Q's help in returning the ship to its previous coordinates.


title: Borg

text: The Borg next appear in "The Next Generation"s third-season finale and fourth-season premiere, "". Picard is abducted and assimilated by the Borg and transformed into Locutus (Latin for "he who speaks"). Picard's knowledge of Starfleet's strengths and strategies is gained by the Collective, and the single cube destroys the entire Starfleet armada at Wolf 359. The "Enterprise" crew manages to capture Locutus, gain information through him that allows them to destroy the cube, and then reverse the assimilation process.


title: Borg

text: In the fifth-season episode "I, Borg", the "Enterprise" crew rescues an adolescent Borg they name "Hugh". The crew faces the moral decision of whether or not to use Hugh (who begins to develop a sense of independence as a result of a severed link to the Collective) as a means of delivering a devastating computer virus to the Borg, or return to the Borg with his individuality intact. They decide to return him without the virus, but in the sixth-season episode "", a group of rogue Borg who had "assimilated" individuality through Hugh fall under the control of the android Lore, the "older brother" of Data. Lore also corrupts Data through the use of an "emotion chip", simultaneously deactivating Data's ethical subroutines and projecting only negative emotions to it. Under this programming, Data participates in the capture of Picard, La Forge and Troi, but they are able to reactivate Data's ethical subroutines, allowing him to recognize that his current actions are wrong and leading him to deactivate Lore. Data recovers the emotion chip and the surviving Borg fall under the leadership of Hugh.


title: Borg

text: The Borg return as the antagonists in the "Next Generation" film "". After again failing to assimilate Earth by a direct assault in the year 2373, the Borg travel back in time to the year 2063 to try to stop Zefram Cochrane's first contact with the Vulcans, change the timeline, and erase Starfleet from existence. The "Enterprise"-E crew follows the Borg back in time and restores the original timeline. "First Contact" introduces the Borg Queen as played by Alice Krige, who later reprised the role on United Paramount Network for the finale of "Star Trek: Voyager".


title: Borg

text: There is only one appearance of Borg in "", in the series premiere "". The episode's prologue depicts Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) as First Officer on the USS "Saratoga", in the Starfleet armada dispatched to confront the Borg at Wolf 359. The "Saratoga" is destroyed by the Borg, killing Sisko's wife, Jennifer. Later in the episode, Sisko's meeting with Picard is tense, as he blames Picard for the actions of Locutus. Throughout the remainder of the series, references to the Borg are made occasionally, including the design of their ship, USS "Defiant", and the battle from "Star Trek: First Contact" being used as a plot point in the fifth season, when Starfleet is spread too thin to deal with a Dominion incursion.


title: Borg

text: The Borg make frequent appearances in "", which takes place in the Delta Quadrant. The Borg are first seen by "Voyager" in the third-season episode "" in which Chakotay discovers the body of what the local humanoids refer to as "the Invaders"; which turns out to be the Borg. In "", the Borg are engaged in a war of attrition against Species 8472, whose biological defences are a match for the Borg's nanoprobes. In one of the few instances of the Borg negotiating, in exchange for safe passage through Borg space, the "Voyager" crew devises a way to destroy the otherwise invulnerable Species 8472. A Borg drone, Seven of Nine, is dispatched to "Voyager" to facilitate this arrangement. After successfully driving Species 8472 back into their fluidic space, Seven of Nine is severed from the Collective and becomes a member of "Voyager"s crew. Seven of Nine's rediscovery of her individuality becomes a recurring theme throughout the series.


title: Borg

text: "The Hollywood Reporter" ranked "Scorpion" as the 4th best episode of "Voyager" in 2016, and the 37th best "Star Trek" episode. In 2017, Den of Geek rated "Scorpion" among the top 50 "Star Trek" episodes overall.