title: The Testaments

text: Serena Davies of "The Daily Telegraph" described "The Testaments" as "a lurid and powerful sequel". She concluded: "Atwood has given us a blockbuster of propulsive, almost breathless narrative, stacked with twists and turns worthy of a Gothic novel".


title: The Testaments

text: In an interview by Martha Teichner, for "CBS News Sunday Morning", Atwood insisted the novel contains "tons of hope—lots and lots of hope" when questioned about the premise. Michiko Kakutani, writing for "The New York Times", contrasts Atwood's thesis of writing one's testimony being an "act of hope", against "the pompous, myopic Gileadean scholars who narrate the satirical epilogues" of both "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Testaments".


title: The Testaments

text: Atwood wrote "The Testaments" in coordination with the ongoing "The Handmaid's Tale" television series, letting the producers know where she was taking the sequel and affirming certain characters' storylines are not impacted by how they appear in "The Testaments", since the setting of the television series is several years away from directly portraying events in this novel. Bruce Miller, producer of the television series, has acknowledged the new novel's storyline will be taken into account as the series continues.


title: The Testaments

text: The novel was released simultaneously as a book and as an audiobook featuring Ann Dowd reprising and narrating the lead role of Aunt Lydia. Atwood said that Dowd's performance as Aunt Lydia in the TV series helped inspire the new novel. The role of Agnes is read by Bryce Dallas Howard, while Daisy/Nicole is read by Mae Whitman. Tantoo Cardinal and Derek Jacobi read the roles of scholars in the epilogue. The audiobook also features Atwood herself.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Crime in the United States has been recorded since its founding. Crime rates have varied over time, with a sharp rise after 1900 and reaching a broad bulging peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates began to fall year by year and have since declined significantly. This trend lasted until 2015, when crime rates began to rise slightly. This reversed in 2018 and 2019, but violent crime increased significantly again in 2020. Homicide rate in the U.S. continues to be high, with four major U.S. cities ranked among the 50 cities with the highest homicide rate in the world in 2019. Despite the increase in violent crime, particularly murders, between 2020 and 2021, the quantity of overall crime is still far below the peak of crime seen in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s, as other crimes such as rape, property crime and robbery continued to decline. The aggregate cost of crime in the United States remains high, with an estimated value of $4.9 trillion reported in 2021.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Statistics on specific crimes are indexed in the annual Uniform Crime Reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and by annual National Crime Victimization Surveys by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In addition to the primary Uniform Crime Report known as "Crime in the United States", the FBI publishes annual reports on the status of law enforcement in the United States. The report's definitions of specific crimes are considered standard by many American law enforcement agencies. According to the FBI, index crime in the United States includes violent crime and property crime. Violent crime consists of five criminal offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and gang violence; property crime consists of burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The basic aspect of a crime considers the offender, the victim, type of crime, severity and level, and location. These are the basic questions asked by law enforcement when first investigating any situation. This information is formatted into a government record by a police arrest report, also known as an incident report. These forms lay out all the information needed to put the crime in the system and it provides a strong outline for further law enforcement agents to review. Society has a strong misconception about crime rates due to media aspects heightening their fear factor. The system's crime data fluctuates by crime depending on certain influencing social factors such as economics, the dark figure of crime, population, and geography.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In the long term, violent crime in the United States has been in decline since colonial times. The homicide rate has been estimated to be over 30 per 100,000 people in 1700, dropping to under 20 by 1800, and to under 10 by 1900.


title: Crime in the United States

text: After World War II, crime rates increased in the United States, peaking from the 1970s to the early-1990s. Violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991. Property crime more than doubled over the same period. Since the 1990s, however, contrary to common misconception, crime in the United States has declined steadily, and has significantly declined by the late 1990s and also in the early 2000s. Several theories have been proposed to explain this decline:


title: Crime in the United States

text: Each state has a set of statutes enforceable within its own borders. A state has no jurisdiction outside of its borders, even though still in the United States. It must request extradition from the state in which the suspect has fled. In 2014, there were 186,873 misdemeanor suspects outside specific states jurisdiction against whom no extradition would be sought. Philadelphia has about 20,000 of these since it is near a border with four other states. Extradition is estimated to cost a few hundred dollars per case.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Analysis of arrest data from California indicates that the most common causes of felony arrest are for violent offenses such as robbery and assault, property offenses such as burglary and auto theft, and drug offenses. For misdemeanors, the most common causes of arrest were traffic offenses, most notably impaired driving, drug offenses, and failure to appear in court. Other common causes of misdemeanor arrest included assault and battery and minor property offenses such as petty theft.


title: Crime in the United States

text: According to the Office Of Justice Programs, crimes like burglary and vandalism have gone down during the past few years for men, and crimes like murder and robbery have gone down for women. For both genders, most of the crimes committed are done by people ages 25 and above.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In 2020, out of the 7,632,470 crimes documented that year, 5,721,190 of them were committed by someone who was at least 25 years of age. [90] 4,225,140 of them being committed by men and 1,496,050 being committed by women. It isn't some random spike seen with adults either. The number of crimes being committed by each age group increases with every year.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In 2020, 75% of all the crimes listed were committed by people ages 25+ while only 16% were committed by people 17 and younger. In 2019 94% of crimes were committed by adults. The data shows a gradual increase in crimes as people getting older. With only a fraction of crimes being committed by someone who is under 18. This demonstrates how kids over time will begin to commit more crimes due to them being conditioned by the way they were raised and who/what influenced them the most. Children being exposed to violence at a young age is a learned behavior that ends increasing their chances of committing violent acts when they're older by as much as 40%. [91]


title: Crime in the United States

text: Research suggests that being socially isolated along with parents not setting boundaries while not teaching their kids about the risk and consequences of certain actions can cause them to commit violent acts as they get older. A lot of the times, these types of situations are most common in highly populated cities like Stockton and Oakland, causing the cycle to repeat. [91]


title: Crime in the United States

text: People are more likely to fear and be less sympathetic toward offenders with a violent criminal history. Violent criminal history includes any offense, of the severity of a violent felony, such as rape, homicide, aggravated assault, and robbery. People associate these criminals with a negative connotation especially in comparison to those with a non-violent, non-sexual, criminal history, offenses with a misdemeanor severity level.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In 2011, surveys indicated more than 5.8 million violent victimizations and 17.1 million property victimizations took place in the United States; according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, each property victimization corresponded to one household, while violent victimizations is the number of victims of a violent crime.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Patterns are found within the victimology of crime in the United States. Overall, people with lower incomes, those younger than 25, and non-whites were more likely to report being the victim of crime. Income, gender, and age had the most dramatic effect on the chances of a person being victimized by crime, while the characteristic of race depended upon the crime being committed.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In terms of gender, the BJS National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) published in 2019 that "the percentage of violent victimizations reported to police was higher for females (46%) than for males (36%)". This difference can largely be attributed to reporting of simple assaults, as the percentages of violent victimizations reported to police, excluding simple assault, were similar for females (47%) and males (46%). The victim-to-population ratio of 1.0 for both males and females shows that the percentage of violent incidents involving male (49%) or female (51%) victims was equal to males' (49%) or females' (51%) share of the population.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In regards to rape, the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) indicates females are disproportionately more affected than males. According to the data collected from 2010 to 2020, women make 89% of victims of rape, while men make 11%. Perpetrators are 93% men.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Concerning age, those younger than twenty-five were more likely to fall victim to crime, especially violent crime. The chances of being victimized by violent crime decreased far more substantially with age than the chances of becoming the victim of property crime. For example, 3.03% of crimes committed against a young person were theft, while 20% of crimes committed against an elderly person were theft.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Bias motivation reports showed that of the 7,254 hate crimes reported in 2011, 47.7% (3,465) were motivated by race, with 72% (2,494) of race-motivated incidents being anti-black. In addition, 20.8% (1,508) of hate crimes were motivated by sexual orientation, with 57.8% (871) of orientation-motivated incidents being anti-male homosexual. The third largest motivation factor for hate crime was religion, representing 18.2% (1,318) incidents, with 62.2% (820) of religion-motivated incidents being anti-Jewish.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The likelihood of falling victim to crime relates to both demographic and geographic characteristics.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In 2010, according to the UNODC, 67.5% of all homicides in the United States were perpetrated using a firearm. The costliest crime in terms of total financial impact on all of its victims, and the most underreported crime is rape, in the United States.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world (which includes pre-trial detainees and sentenced prisoners). As of 2009, 2.3 million people were incarcerated in the United States, including federal and state prisons and local jails, creating an incarceration rate of 793 persons per 100,000 of national population. During 2011, 1.6 million people were incarcerated under the jurisdiction of federal and state authorities. At the end of 2011, 492 persons per 100,000 U.S. residents were incarcerated in federal and state prisons. Of the 1.6 million state and federal prisoners, nearly 1.4 million people were under state jurisdiction, while 215,000 were under federal jurisdiction. Demographically, nearly 1.5 million prisoners were male, and 115,000 were female, while 581,000 prisoners were black, 516,000 were white, and 350,000 were Hispanic.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Among the 1.35 million sentenced state prisoners in 2011, 725,000 people were incarcerated for violent crimes, 250,000 were incarcerated for property crimes, 237,000 people were incarcerated for drug crimes, and 150,000 were incarcerated for other offenses. Of the 200,000 sentenced federal prisoners in 2011, 95,000 were incarcerated for drug crimes, 69,000 were incarcerated for public order offenses, 15,000 were incarcerated for violent crimes, and 11,000 were incarcerated for property crimes.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The manner in which the United States' crime rate compares to other countries of similar wealth and development depends on the nature of the crime used in the comparison. Overall crime statistic comparisons are difficult to conduct, as the definition and categorization of crimes varies across countries. Thus an agency in a foreign country may include crimes in its annual reports which the U.S. omits, and vice versa.


title: Crime in the United States

text: However, some countries such as Canada have similar definitions of what constitutes a violent crime, and nearly all countries had the same definition of the characteristics that constitutes a homicide. Overall the total crime rate of the United States is higher than developed countries, specifically Europe and East Asia, with South American countries and Russia being the exceptions. Some types of reported property crime in the U.S. survey as lower than in Germany or Canada, yet the homicide rate in the United States is substantially higher as is the prison population.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The difference in homicide rate between the U.S. and other high income countries has widened in recent years especially since the 30% rise in 2020 was not replicated elsewhere, and is also above many developing countries such as China, India and Turkey. In the European Union, homicides fell 32% between 2008-2019 to 3,875 while rising by 4,901 in the U.S. in 2020 alone, leaving the U.S. with a homicide rate 7x higher. In reputable estimates of crime across the globe, the U.S. generally ranks slightly below the middle, roughly 70th lowest or 100th highest.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The reported U.S. violent crime rate includes murder, rape and sexual assault, robbery, and assault, whereas the Canadian violent crime rate includes all categories of assault, including Assault level 1 (i.e., assault not using a weapon and not resulting in serious bodily harm). A Canadian government study concluded that direct comparison of the two countries' violent crime totals or rates was "inappropriate".


title: Crime in the United States

text: France does not count minor violence such as punching or slapping as assault, whereas Austria, Germany, Finland and the United Kingdom do count such occurrences.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The United Kingdom similarly has different definitions of what constitutes violent crime compared to the United States, making a direct comparison of the overall figure flawed. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports defines a "violent crime" as one of four specific offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The British Home Office, by contrast, has a different definition of violent crime, including all "crimes against the person", including simple assaults, all robberies, and all "sexual offenses", as opposed to the FBI, which only counts aggravated assaults and "forcible rapes".


title: Crime in the United States

text: Crime rates are necessarily altered by averaging neighborhood higher or lower local rates over a larger population which includes the entire city. Having small pockets of dense crime may increase a city's average crime rate. It is estimated that violent crime accounts for as much as $2.2 trillion by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, accounting for about 85% of the total cost of crime in the United States.


title: Crime in the United States

text: According to a 2013 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), , the average homicide rate in the U.S. was 4.9 per 100,000 inhabitants compared to the average rate globally, which was 6.2. However, the U.S. had much higher murder rates compared to four other selected "developed countries", which all had average homicide rates of 0.8 per 100,000. In 2004, there were 5.5 homicides for every 100,000 persons, roughly three times as high as Canada (1.9) and six times as high as Germany and Italy (0.9).


title: Crime in the United States

text: In the United States, the number of homicides where the victim and offender relationship was undetermined has been increasing since 1999 but has not reached the levels experienced in the early 1990s. In 14% of all murders, the victim and the offender were strangers. Spouses and family members made up about 15% of all victims, about one-third of the victims were acquaintances of the assailant, and the victim and offender relationship was undetermined in over one-third of homicides. Gun involvement in homicides were gang-related homicides which increased after 1980, homicides that occurred during the commission of a felony which increased from 55% in 1985 to 77% in 2005, homicides resulting from arguments which declined to the lowest levels recorded recently, and homicides resulting from other circumstances which remained relatively constant. Because gang killing has become a normal part of inner cities, many including police hold preconceptions about the causes of death in inner cities. When a death is labeled gang-related it lowers the chances that it will be investigated and increases the chances that the perpetrator will remain at large. In addition, victims of gang killings often determine the priority a case will be given by police. Jenkins (1988) argues that many serial murder cases remain unknown to police and that cases involving Black offenders and victims are especially likely to escape official attention.


title: Crime in the United States

text: According to the FBI, "When the race of the offender was known, 53.0 percent were black, 44.7 percent were white, and 2.3 percent were of other races. The race was unknown for 4,132 offenders. (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 3). Of the offenders for whom gender was known, 88.2 percent were male." According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 1980 to 2008, 84 percent of white homicide victims were killed by white offenders and 93 percent of black homicide victims were killed by black offenders.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The United States has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership per capita. According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2014 there were 185,718 homicides from use of a firearm and 291,571 suicides using a firearm. The U.S. gun homicide rate in 2019 was 18 times the average rate in other developed countries. Despite a significant increase in the sales of firearms since 1994, the US has seen a drop in the annual rate of homicides using a firearm from 7.0 per 100,000 population in 1993 to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2013. In the ten years between 2000 and 2009, the ATF reported 37,372,713 clearances for purchase, however, in the four years between 2010 and 2013, the ATF reported 31,421,528 clearances.


title: Crime in the United States

text: According to a 2004 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, looking at the period from 1981 to 1999, the United States had a lower surveyed residential burglary rate in 1998 than Scotland, England, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia. The other two countries included in the study, Sweden and Switzerland, had only slightly lower burglary rates. For the first nine years of the study period the same surveys of the public showed only Australia with rates higher than the United States. The authors noted various problems in doing the comparisons including infrequent data points. (The United States performed five surveys from 1995 to 1999 when its rate dipped below Canada's, while Canada ran a single telephone survey during that period for comparison.)


title: Crime in the United States

text: Violence against children from birth to adolescence is considered a "global phenomenon that takes many forms (physical, sexual, emotional), and occurs in many settings, including the home, school, community, care, and justice systems, and over the Internet."


title: Crime in the United States

text: According to a 2001 report from UNICEF, the United States has the highest rate of deaths from child abuse and neglect of any industrialized nation, at 2.4 per 100,000 children; France has 1.4, Japan 1, UK 0.9 and Germany 0.8. According to the US Department of Health, the state of Texas has the highest death rate, at 4.1 per 100,000 children, New York has 2.5, Oregon 1.5 and New Hampshire 0.4.


title: Crime in the United States

text: A 2018 report from the Congressional Research Service stated, at the national level, violent crime and homicide rates have increased each year from 2014 to 2016.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In 2016, data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) revealed that approximately 1,750 children died from either abuse or neglect; further, this is a continuing trend with an increasing 7.4% of crimes against children from 2012 to 2016 and these statistics can be compared to a rate of 2.36 children per 100,000 children in the United States general population. In addition, 44.2% of these 2016 statistics are specific to physical abuse towards a child.


title: Crime in the United States

text: A 2016 report from the Child Welfare Information Gateway also showed that parents account for 78% of violence against children in the United States.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Human trafficking is categorized into the following three groups: (1) sex trafficking; (2) sex and labor trafficking; and (3) labor trafficking; In addition, the rate of domestic minor sex trafficking has exponentially increased over the years. Sex trafficking of children also referred to as commercial sexual exploitation of children, is categorized by the following forms: pornography, prostitution, child sex tourism, and child marriage. Profiles of traffickers and types of trafficking differ in the way victims are abducted, how they are treated, and the reason for the abduction.


title: Crime in the United States

text: According to a 2017 report from the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH), out of 10,615 reported survivors of sex trafficking, 2,762 of those survivors were minors.


title: Crime in the United States

text: The U.S. Department of Justice defines Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) as a range of crimes and activities involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child for the financial benefit of any person or in exchange for anything of value (including monetary and non-monetary benefits) given or received by any person. These crimes against children, which may occur at any time or place, rob them of their childhood and are extremely detrimental to their emotional and psychological development.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In Pimp-controlled trafficking, the pimp typically is the only trafficker involved who has full physical, psychological and emotional control over the victim. In Gang-controlled trafficking, a large group of people has power over the victim, forcing the victim to take part in illegal or violent tasks for the purpose of obtaining drugs. Another form is called Familial trafficking, which differs the most from the two mentioned above because the victim is typically not abducted. Instead, the victim is forced into being sexually exploited by family members in exchange for something of monetary value, whether that's paying back debt, or obtaining drugs or money. This type of sexual exploitation tends to be the most difficult to detect, yet remains as the most prevalent form of human sex trafficking within the United States.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In 2009, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that the average age when children first fall victim to CSEC is between ages 12 and 14. However, this age has become increasingly younger due to exploiters' fear of contracting HIV or AIDS from older victims.


title: Crime in the United States

text: In 2018, the Office of Public Affairs within the Department of Justice released a report from operation "Broken Heart" conducted by Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces, stating that more than 2,300 suspected online child sex offenders were arrested on the following allegations:


title: Crime in the United States

text: In addition, a 2011 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics described the characteristics of suspected human trafficking incidents, identifying roughly 95% of victims as female and over half as 17 years old or younger.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Crime rates vary in the United States depending on the type of community. Within metropolitan statistical areas, both violent and property crime rates are higher than the national average; in cities located outside metropolitan areas, violent crime was lower than the national average, while property crime was higher. For rural areas, both property and violent crime rates were lower than the national average.


title: Crime in the United States

text: For regional comparisons, the FBI divides the United States into four regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. For 2019, the region with the lowest violent crime rate was the Northeast, with a rate of 292.4 per 100,000 residents, while the region with the highest violent crime rate was the West, with a rate of 413.5 per 100,000. For 2019, the region with the lowest property crime rate was the Northeast, with a rate of 1,350.4 per 100,000 residents, while the region with the highest property crime rate was the West, with a rate of 2,411.7 per 100,000.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Crime rates vary among U.S. states. In 2019, the state with the lowest violent crime rate was Maine, with a rate of 115.2 per 100,000 residents, while the state with the highest violent crime rate was Alaska, with a rate of 867.1 per 100,000. However, the District of Columbia, the U.S. capital district, had a violent crime rate of 1,049.0 per 100,000 in 2019. In 2019, the state with the highest property crime rate was Louisiana, with a rate of 3,162.0 per 100,000, while the state with the lowest property crime rate was Massachusetts, with a rate of 1,179.8 per 100,000. However, Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, had a property crime rate of 702.7 per 100,000 in 2011.


title: Crime in the United States

text: Crime in metropolitan statistical areas tends to be above the national average; however, wide variance exists among and within metropolitan areas. Some responding jurisdictions report very low crime rates, while others have considerably higher rates; these variations are due to many factors beyond population. FBI crime statistics publications strongly caution against comparison rankings of cities, counties, metropolitan statistical areas, and other reporting units without considering factors other than simply population. For , the metropolitan statistical area with the highest violent crime rate was the Memphis, Tennessee, metropolitan area, with a rate of 1168.3 per 100,000 residents, while the metropolitan statistical area with the lowest violent crime rate was Bangor, Maine, metropolitan area, with a rate of 65.8.


title: Crime in the United States

text: It is quite common for crime in American cities to be highly concentrated in a few, often economically disadvantaged areas. For example, San Mateo County, California had a population of approximately 707,000 and 17 homicides in 2001. Six of these 17 homicides took place in poor East Palo Alto, which had a population of roughly 30,000. So, while East Palo Alto accounted for a mere 4.2% of the population, about one-third of the homicides took place there.


title: Crime in the United States

text: There are conflicting opinions on the number of federal crimes, but many have argued that there has been explosive growth and it has become overwhelming. In 1982, the U.S. Justice Department could not come up with a number, but estimated 3,000 crimes in the United States Code. In 1998, the American Bar Association (ABA) said that it was likely much higher than 3,000, but didn't give a specific estimate. In 2008, the Heritage Foundation published a report that put the number at a minimum of 4,450. When staff for a task force of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee asked the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to update its 2008 calculation of criminal offenses in the United States Code in 2013, the CRS responded that they lack the staffing and resources to accomplish the task.


title: Crime in the United States

text: 90. Arrests by Offense, age and gender https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=1&selYrs=2020&rdoGroups=3&rdoData=c Archived December 4, 2022 US Department of Justice, Office Of Justice Programs,


title: Crime in the United States

text: 91. Environmental Factors Contribute to Juvenile Crime and Violence https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/environmental-factors-contribute-juvenile-crime-and-violence#:~:text=Environmental%20factors%20that%20contribute%20to,either%20violence%20or%20physical%20abuse. Archived December 4, 2022 US Department Of Justice, Office Of Justice Programs


title: Pingu

text: Pingu is a stop-motion children's television series co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. It was originally produced from 1990 to 2000 by Swiss company The Pygos Group (originally called Trickfilmstudio) for SF DRS in Switzerland. It was later revived from 2003 to 2006 for CBeebies by British companies HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series focuses on a family of anthropomorphic emperor penguins who live in the South Pole; the main character is the family's son and title character, Pingu.


title: Pingu

text: The series originally ran for four series from 7 March 1990 to 9 April 2000 on SF DRS. It was then renewed for two more series from 1 August 2003 to 3 March 2006 on CBeebies. "Pingu" was also nominated for a BAFTA award in 2005. The pilot episode was made on 28 May 1986.


title: Pingu

text: Pingu became popular outside of Switzerland, in part due to its lack of a real spoken language: nearly all dialogue is in an invented grammelot "penguin language" referred to as 'Penguinese', consisting of babbling, muttering and the titular character's characteristic sporadic loud honking noise, which can be popularly recognized as "Noot noot!" or other variants, stated to be "Noo, Noo!" by the defunct Pingu website's trivia page, accompanied by turning his beak into a megaphone-like shape. In the first four series, all the characters were performed by Italian voice actor Carlo Bonomi, using a language of noises that he had already developed and used for the earlier Osvaldo Cavandoli's "La Linea". In series 5 and 6, the Pingu cast was jointly voiced by David Sant and Marcello Magni.


title: Pingu

text: A Japanese revival of the series, called "Pingu in the City", began airing on NHK on 7 October 2017, and ran until 30 March 2019. Later, "Pingu in the City" aired in the United Kingdom on ITVBe's children's’ block (known as LittleBe).


title: Pingu

text: The programme is set in Antarctica and focuses around penguin families living and working in igloos. The main character, Pingu, belongs to one such family. He frequently goes on adventures with his little sister, Pinga and often gets into mischief with his best friend Robby and his love interest Pingi.


title: Pingu

text: In 1984, Erika Brueggemann was working at Schweizer Fernsehen when she was introduced to animator Otmar Gutmann. Gutmann pitched a clay animation show starring sea lions who crawled around in a funny way. Erika Brueggemann liked the idea of a clay cartoon character, but she preferred the clay penguins that Gutmann had made. She suggested that the main character should walk upright like a human and asked, "Why not a penguin?"


title: Pingu

text: Brueggemann's colleague, Guido Steiger, agreed with her idea. Otmar Gutmann was not immediately convinced, since he had already created many sea lion characters out of plasticine, but he eventually pushed forward with the penguin idea too. According to Erika Brueggemann, she gave "countless demonstrations on my part about how 'my' penguin had to move and act." From this framework, Brueggemann, Gutmann, and their team created a 7-minute pilot called "Pingu: Eine Geschichte Für Kinder Im Vorschulalter," which was finished in 1986.


title: Pingu

text: The pilot was eventually screened at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Kleiner Baer award. The positive reception to this pilot persuaded the director of Schweizer Fernsehen, , to commission an entire series of the "Pingu" cartoons.


title: Pingu

text: The first production year from 1988 and starting broadcast with 1990–2000 created 104 five-minute episodes and one special 25-minute episode. The original stories were written by Erika Brueggemann and Guido Steiger, and some of the later stories were written by Silvio Mazzola. These episodes were animated at Trickfilmstudio in Russikon, Switzerland. In the style of voices, a retroscript was chosen, and all voices were performed by Italian voice actor Carlo Bonomi without a script, using a language of noises that he had already developed and used for Osvaldo Cavandoli's "La Linea". This feature enables people of diverse linguistic backgrounds to be able to follow the story.


title: Pingu

text: In 1993, David Hasselhoff released a single titled "Pingu Dance", a rap song (in Switzerland only) based on the "Pingu" shorts and featuring samples of Penguinese. A portion of this song is used as the theme to "Pingu" in international airings, and was also heard in the re-dubbed version of the "Pingu Looks After the Egg (retitled Pingu Helps with Incubating)" episode, replacing the "Woodpeckers from Space" song from the original version.


title: Pingu

text: A special twenty-five-minute episode, "Pingu at the Wedding Party", was also produced in 1997, and introduced a family of green penguins.


title: Pingu

text: In October 2001, HIT Entertainment bought the rights to the series, including the original 104 episodes and the wedding special, for £15.9 million. HIT later revived the show, and produced a further 52 episodes in 2003 through 2006. These episodes were animated through stop-motion like the original, but used resin casts of the original clay puppets (which had deteriorated by this time).


title: Pingu

text: The HIT Entertainment episodes were made by a completely new team at HOT Animation, but co-creator Erika Brueggemann still traveled to the company's headquarters in the United Kingdom to check on production. At the time, she said, "Last year a production company from England bought everything... I traveled to Manchester last summer and met their highly motivated team who worked with great commitment, humor and responsibility towards children. I think Pingu is in good hands now."


title: Pingu

text: Contrary to some sources, there was never any CGI used in these later episodes. When HIT Entertainment bought the rights, Carlo Bonomi was replaced with new voice actors Marcello Magni and David Sant. Magni and Sant, Italian and Spanish actors based in London, both have a mime and clowning background and were already aware of the clown language of "Grammelot" on which the penguin language was based.


title: Pingu

text: From its debut in the country in 1992, "Pingu" became well known in Japan. According to writer Silvio Mazzola in 1996, "Pingu" was most popular with high-school girls, with over 90% of Japanese girls aged 13–17 knowing about the series. In 2020, an exhibition event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the original "Hugo" animation was held in Tokyo. "Pingu" currently airs as part of NHK's children's program "Nyanchu's World", and also on Cartoon Network Japan. Several pieces of merchandise exclusive to the country has beenn created, including tie in toys with KFC and Mister Donut, as well as various video games.


title: Pingu

text: A Japanese-produced reboot of the series, titled , was announced in 2017. It premiered on NHK-E on October 7, 2017. Unlike its previous series, it is computer-animated, and features Pingu and his family moving to a big city. Each episode involves Pingu attempting to help out anyone there with their jobs, although he usually messes it up. The series was produced by Polygon Pictures in the same style of the original stop-motion series through computer animation. It was directed by Naomi Iwata and written by both Kimiko Ueno and Shigenori Tanabe, with music done by Ken Arai. It features voices by Ryota Iwasaki and Fumiya Tanaka, in a similar style to Carlo Bonomi, David Sant and Marcello Magni.


title: Pingu

text: In the United Kingdom, the BBC aired the original version of "Pingu" on CBBC when it was a block on BBC1. In 2002, when the BBC created the CBBC channel it was moved to its pre-school channel Cbeebies. They used the original cartoon title card (series 1 and 2) from the 52 episodes, and the first 13 episodes of series 3 used the claymation-inspired intro. JimJam contains all of the show's 156 episodes and Pingu at the Wedding Party, but it contains the re-dubbed versions of series 1–2 and contains the original version of Pingu at the Wedding Party, without the titles and credits.


title: Pingu

text: According to a 2008 "Slate" article asking "When will America embrace Pingu?", the series has "been an international sensation for more than two decades while remaining as obscure to American audiences as a Eurovision pop star." The show has only rarely been broadcast in the United States. At first, "Pingu" was only shown in the country as a short segment in the variety program "Small World", a showcase of internationally produced shorts that aired during Cartoon Network's Sunday morning lineup from 1996 to 2002. In 2005, the series returned to the country on the new Sprout channel, finally airing as a separate show in the US. It aired on Sprout until it was removed sometime in 2009, and it has not been broadcast since then. Currently, the show is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Instant Video in the US.


title: Pingu

text: A documentary documenting the production and fans of the series, called "Pingu - A Cartoon Character who conquers the world", was produced in the early 1990s and follows a detective who tries to figure out why Pingu became popular.


title: Pingu

text: In 2006, Pingu was featured in a music video for Eskimo Disco's first single, "7–11". The music video was also released via CD, on 18 December 2006.


title: Pingu

text: In India, "Pingu" was aired by Doordarshan in the late 1990s. Since 2000, it has been aired by "Cartoon Network", "Hungama TV", and "Animax".


title: Pingu

text: In South Africa, the original series of "Pingu" began airing on SABC2 and the 2003 series later went onto air on e.tv as part of their children's strand "Craz-e!".


title: Pingu

text: In Australia, episodes of "Pingu" originally aired as a segment on the children's programme, "The Book Place" on the Seven Network from 1992 to 1996 and later aired on ABC Television as a stand-alone programme in 1998.


title: Pingu

text: "Pingu" was shown on television for the very first time in Singapore and first aired on Kids Central from 2003 to 2006 and then on Okto from 2012 to 2014.


title: Pingu

text: In Canada, "Pingu" airs on TVOKids, CBC Kids, Knowledge Network, Toon-A-Vision, and YTV. Pingu has been a mainstay of the children's programming blocks on TVOntario since the mid-1990s. It can still be seen on TV in that country since APTN airs "The Pingu Show" as part of its morning children's programming block "APTN Kids", and the show is available in English and French language versions. Some of the controversial episodes, such as "Pingu Quarrels With His Mother" (also known as "Pingu Argues With His Mother") and "Little Accidents" (also known as "Pingu's Lavatory Story"), have aired uncut on APTN Kids. In British Columbia, Pingu is aired during commercial breaks on Knowledge Network.


title: Pingu

text: In the United Kingdom, Pingu was featured in the "Children In Need 2009" video by Peter Kay, which contained many other popular characters. This was shown on live television across the United Kingdom, and then sold on both CD and DVD, this was Pingu's final appearance for 8 years until Pingu in the City this is also Pingu's final clay animation appearance.


title: Pingu

text: In August 2017, reruns of the fifth and sixth seasons of Pingu started airing in the Milkshake! programming block of the British television channel 5Star. Pingu remained part of the Milkshake! Block for just over a year before being pulled from 5Star and its digital service.


title: Pingu

text: "Pingu" received mostly positive reviews, Common Sense Media rated the show a 4 out of 5 stars stating "Parents need to know that this claymation series is funny, endearing, and entertaining. Although the series is appropriate for all ages, the plots might be difficult for the youngest viewers to follow".


title: Zion

text: Zion ( "Ṣīyyōn", , also variously transliterated "Sion", "Tzion", "Tsion", "Tsiyyon") is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole (see Names of Jerusalem).


title: Zion

text: The name is found in 2 Samuel (5:7), one of the books of the Hebrew Bible dated to before or close to the mid-6th century BCE. It originally referred to a specific hill in Jerusalem (Mount Zion), located to the south of Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount). According to the narrative of 2 Samuel 5, Mount Zion held the Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was renamed the City of David.


title: Zion

text: That specific hill ("mount") is one of the many squat hills that form Jerusalem, which also includes Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount), the Mount of Olives, etc. Over many centuries, until as recently as the Ottoman era, the city walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt many times in new locations, so that the particular hill known as Mount Zion is no longer inside the city wall, but its location is now just outside the portion of the Old City wall forming the southern boundary of the Jewish Quarter of the current Old City. Most of the original City of David itself is thus also outside the current city wall.


title: Zion

text: The term "Tzion" came to designate the area of Davidic Jerusalem where the fortress stood, and was used as well as synecdoche for the entire city of Jerusalem; and later, when Solomon's Temple was built on the adjacent Mount Moriah (which, as a result, came to be known as the Temple Mount) the meanings of the term "Tzion" were further extended by synecdoche to the additional meanings of the Temple itself, the hill upon which the Temple stood, the entire city of Jerusalem, the entire biblical Land of Israel, and "the World to Come", the Jewish understanding of the afterlife.


title: Zion

text: Mentioned in the Old Testament in the Books of Samuel (2 Samuel 5:7) as the name of a Jebusite fortress conquered by David, its origin seems to predate the Israelites. If Semitic, it may be derived from the Hebrew root "ṣiyyôn" ("castle") or the Hebrew צִיָּה "ṣiyya" ("dry land" or "desert", Jeremiah 51:43). A non-Semitic relationship to the Hurrian word "šeya" ("river" or "brook") has also been suggested as also one of Hittite origin.


title: Zion

text: The form ("Tzion", Tiberian vocalization: "Ṣiyyôn") appears 108 times in the Hebrew Bible, and once with article, as "HaTzion".


title: Zion

text: Tsade is usually rendered as "z" in English Bible translations, hence the spelling "Zion" (rather than "Tzion").


title: Zion

text: "Zion" is mentioned 152 times in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), most often in the Prophetic books, the Book of Psalms, and the Book of Lamentations, besides six mentions in the Historical books (Kings, Samuel, Chronicles)


title: Zion

text: Out of the 152 mentions, 26 instances are within the phrase of "Daughter of Zion" (Hebrew "bat Tzion").


title: Zion

text: "[1] By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. [2] We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. [3] For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion." In verse 8, the phrase "Daughter of Babylon"


title: Zion

text: appears as a personification of Babylon or its population: "[8] O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us."


title: Zion

text: Psalm 147 uses "Jerusalem" and "Zion" interchangeably to address the faithful: "[2] The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcast of Israel. [...] [12] Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion."


title: Zion

text: The location of the Temple, and in particular its Holy of Holies (innermost sanctum), is the most holy place in the world for the Jewish people, seen as the connection between God and humanity. Observant Jews recite the Amidah three times a day facing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, praying for the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, the restoration of the Temple service, the redemption of the world, and for the coming of the Messiah.


title: Zion

text: In Kabbalah, the more esoteric reference is made to Tzion being the spiritual point from which reality emerges, located in the Holy of Holies of the First, Second and Third Temple.


title: Zion

text: The term "Zionism", coined by Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, was derived from the German rendering of Tzion in his journal "Selbstemanzipation" ("self emancipation") in 1890. Zionism as a modern political movement started in 1897 and supported a "national home", and later a state, for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, though the idea has been around since the end of Jewish independent rule. The Zionist movement declared the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, following the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Since then, and with varying ideologies, Zionists have focused on developing and protecting this state.


title: Zion

text: The last line of the Israeli national anthem "Hatikvah" (Hebrew for "The Hope") is "...Eretz Zion, ViYerushalayim", which means literally "The land of Zion and Jerusalem".


title: Zion

text: "Ṣahyūn" (, "Ṣahyūn" or "Ṣihyūn") is the word for Zion in Arabic and Syriac. Drawing on biblical tradition, it is one of the names accorded to Jerusalem in Arabic and Islamic tradition. A valley called "Wādī Sahyũn" seemingly preserves the name and is located approximately one and three-quarter miles from the Old City's Jaffa Gate.


title: Zion

text: For example, the reference to the "precious cornerstone" of the new Jerusalem in the Book of Isaiah 28:16 is identified in Islamic scholarship as the Black Stone of the Kaaba. This interpretation is said by ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) to have come from the People of the Book, though earlier Christian scholarship identifies the cornerstone with Jesus.


title: Zion

text: Within the Latter Day Saint movement, Zion is often used to connote a peaceful ideal society. In the Latter Day Saints belief system the term "Zion" is often used to denote a place of gathering for the saints. It is also often used to denote an area or city of refuge for the saints.


title: Zion

text: In Rastafari, "Zion" stands for a utopian place of unity, peace and freedom, as opposed to "Babylon", the oppressing and exploiting system of the materialistic modern world and a place of evil.


title: Zion

text: It proclaims Zion, as reference to Ethiopia, the original birthplace of humankind, and from the beginning of the movement calls to repatriation to Zion, the Promised Land and Heaven on Earth. Some Rastafari believe themselves to represent the real Children of Israel in modern times, and their goal is to repatriate to Ethiopia, or to Zion. The Ge'ez-language "Kebra Nagast" serves as inspiration for the idea that the "Glory of Zion" transferred from Jerusalem to Ethiopia in the time of Solomon and Sheba, c. 950 BCE.


title: Zion

text: Rastafari reggae contains many references to Zion; among the best-known examples are the Bob Marley songs "Zion Train", "Iron Lion Zion", the Bunny Wailer song "Rastaman" ("The Rasta come from Zion, Rastaman a Lion!"), The Melodians song "Rivers of Babylon" (based on Psalm 137, where the captivity of "Babylon" is contrasted with the freedom in "Zion"), the Bad Brains song "Leaving Babylon", the Damian Marley song featuring Nas "Road to Zion", The Abyssinians' "Forward Unto Zion" and Kiddus I's "Graduation in Zion", which is featured in the 1977 cult roots rock reggae film "Rockers", and "Let's Go to Zion" by Winston Francis. Reggae groups such as Steel Pulse and Cocoa Tea also have many references to Zion in their various songs.


title: Zion

text: The Jewish longing for Zion, starting with the deportation and enslavement of Jews during the Babylonian captivity, was adopted as a metaphor by Christian black slaves in the United States.


title: Zion

text: Thus, Zion symbolizes a longing by wandering peoples for a safe homeland. This could be an actual place such as Ethiopia for Rastafari or Israel for the Jews.


title: Zion

text: Rastafari, while not identifying as "Jews", identify themselves and Africa as Zion. Specifically, Ethiopia is acknowledged as the mountains of Zion. Further, Rastafari ontology views all Africans as God's Chosen People. This differs from Judaic narratives.


title: Zion

text: References to Zion occur in the writings of the Bahá’í Faith. Bahá’u’lláh, the prophet-founder of the Bahá’í Faith wrote, concerning the Bahá’í Revelation,"The time foreordained unto the peoples and kindreds of the earth is now come. The promises of God, as recorded in the holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled. Out of Zion hath gone forth the Law of God, and Jerusalem, and the hills and land thereof, are filled with the glory of His Revelation." -Bahá’u’lláh, "Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh""Call out to Zion, O Carmel, and announce the joyful tidings: He that was hidden from mortal eyes is come! His all-conquering sovereignty is manifest; His all-encompassing splendor is revealed."


title: Zion

text: Today, Mount Zion refers to a hill south of the Old City's Armenian Quarter, not to the Temple Mount. This apparent misidentification dates at least from the 1st century AD, when Josephus calls Jerusalem's Western Hill "Mount Zion". The Abbey of the Dormition and King David's Tomb are located upon the hill currently called Mount Zion.


title: Old Town Road

text: "Old Town Road" is the debut single of American rapper Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. Lil Nas X also recorded a remix with American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, which was released on April 5, 2019. Both were included in Lil Nas X's second EP, "7" (2019).


title: Old Town Road

text: The song has been widely labeled as "country rap", a genre that had not often reached the mainstream prior to its release. Dutch record producer YoungKio composed the instrumental and made it available for purchase online in 2018. It features a sample of "34 Ghosts IV" by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The sample was placed behind trap-style Roland TR-808 drums and bass. Lil Nas X purchased the instrumental for US$30 and recorded "Old Town Road" in one day. At the time, he had been living with his sister after dropping out of college; his real-world struggles were an influence on some of the lyrics.


title: Old Town Road

text: The song initially gained popularity on the social video sharing app TikTok and eventually entered the " Billboard" charts in March 2019. The song reached number 19 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart before the magazine disqualified it from the chart on the grounds that it did not fit the genre, sparking a debate on the definition of country music. Though it was not re-entered onto the overall country charts, both versions of the song collectively peaked at number one on the general "Billboard" Hot 100, for a record-breaking nineteen consecutive weeks. One or more versions of "Old Town Road" have topped the national singles charts in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and have charted in the top 10 in various other markets.


title: Old Town Road

text: The song was certified diamond by the RIAA in October 2019 for selling ten million total units in the United States, the fastest song to be certified diamond. At the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, the remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus was nominated for Record of the Year and won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video. In October 2019, Nas X's label Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment, won the Music & Sound Recordings Award from SAG-AFTRA "for work that exemplifies equal access" of LGBTQ and "other misrepresented or underrepresented groups."


title: Old Town Road

text: In September 2021, the song set the record as the second highest certified song ever by the RIAA with 16-times platinum status in the United States, meaning it accumulated 16 million equivalent song units. It has sold over 18 million records worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. "Rolling Stone" named it the 490th greatest song of all time in its 2021 list.


title: Old Town Road

text: Country rap, and its subgenre, country trap, emerged onto the mainstream following the American rapper Young Thug's experimental mixtape "Beautiful Thugger Girls" (2017). Lil Nas X has cited Young Thug as a pioneer of country trap. In May 2018, Lil Tracy and Lil Uzi Vert ignited the trend with their country rap single "Like a Farmer (Remix)".


title: Old Town Road

text: In 2018, Lil Nas X dropped out of college to pursue a music career even though he was discouraged by his parents. He moved in with his sister, spending time promoting his music on the Internet while having just three hours of sleep each night. Lil Nas X found the beat for "Old Town Road" in October 2018 and began writing after his sister told him he had to move out soon. Lil Nas X felt like he was "out of options" and said that his sister's and parents' frustrations with him inspired the song's chorus, "can't nobody tell me nothing". Within a month of writing it, Lil Nas X chose to alter the song's meaning so that the "old town road" would be a symbol of success. Lil Nas X recorded the song on December 2, 2018, at the CinCoYo Recording Studio in Atlanta, and released it the same day on SoundCloud under the title "Old Town Road (I Got the Horses in the Back)". The Dutch record producer YoungKio produced the beat a year before the song's release and uploaded it to his online store for selling beats. He sampled Nine Inch Nails' track "34 Ghosts IV", modifying it with studio techniques so that it sounded like an old field recording, then reordering sections in an effort to make the austere original more catchy. He had never heard of Nine Inch Nails before stumbling upon "34 Ghosts IV". Lil Nas X bought the beat from YoungKio for $30, but since purchases on his online store were anonymous, YoungKio did not know the song was purchased by Lil Nas X until he saw it in an Instagram meme in December 2018. Trent Reznor later said that, shortly after the song began gaining traction, he received a call from Lil Nas X's manager about the sample, asking for clearance to use it, which he granted. He described the song as "undeniably hooky".


title: Old Town Road

text: On December 4, 2018, a day after the original version's release, Lil Nas X tweeted that he wanted Cyrus on the song. Lil Nas X knew of Cyrus because of his role on the Disney Channel television series "Hannah Montana". The country singer Jake Owen was originally approached to co-write and record the first remix of "Old Town Road". The Columbia Records executive, Ron Perry, reached out to Cyrus' wife Tish Cyrus saying that he would love it if Cyrus were to hear "Old Town Road". Cyrus first heard the song over coffee on March 16, 2019, when Tish played it to him. Cyrus explained that he loved the original song the first time he heard it. Cyrus also mentioned that he related to the song the first time he heard it, connecting the "old town road" to the Old Town Bridge in Argillite, Kentucky, that he used to play on as a child. In response to "Billboard" removing "Old Town Road" from the Hot Country Songs chart, Cyrus tweeted his support for Lil Nas X and noted that the removal put him in the ranks of great outlaws.


title: Old Town Road

text: "Old Town Road" has been variously described by publications as a country rap, trap, pop, country, rock Southern hip hop, or country trap song. Lil Nas X himself said that he regards it as the latter. Produced by YoungKio, "Old Town Road" samples Nine Inch Nails' track "34 Ghosts IV" from their sixth studio album "Ghosts I–IV" (2008). The song prominently features the playing of a banjo along with trap-style Roland TR-808 drums and bass throughout. It has been compared to Lil Tracy's 2018 single "Like a Farmer", which was later remixed by Lil Uzi Vert.


title: Old Town Road

text: The song is composed in the key of G minor with a chord progression of Gm-B-F-Cm7. It has an approximate tempo of 68 beats per minute.


title: Old Town Road

text: "Old Town Road" was released independently as a single on December 3, 2018, during the rise of the "Yeehaw Agenda" meme, a movement appropriating cowboy fashion and culture. Danny Kang, the manager of the viral country artist Mason Ramsey, suggested to "Rolling Stone" that Lil Nas X listed the song under the country music genre on SoundCloud and iTunes as a way to manipulate chart algorithms, as it would be easier to top the country charts than the dominant hip hop/rap charts. Lil Nas X began creating memes to promote "Old Town Road" before it was picked up by TikTok users. The song's first music video is composed entirely of footage and clips from the 2018 Western action-adventure game, "Red Dead Redemption 2".


title: Old Town Road

text: The song gained traction in late December 2018 after becoming the "Yeehaw Challenge" meme on TikTok, where users created short videos set to the song. The challenge is credited with launching the song to enter the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 83, the chart on which the song has since peaked at number one. The song's popularity grew so quickly that radio stations had to download the audio from YouTube. On March 22, 2019, the success of the song allowed Lil Nas X to sign to Columbia Records, which now distributes the single.


title: Old Town Road

text: The first official remix of "Old Town Road", featuring the American country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, was released on April 5, 2019, by Columbia Records. The remix was recorded in support of "Old Town Road" being recognized as a country song. A limited edition 7-inch vinyl single was made available for purchase on May 1, 2019, with the remix on the A-side and the original on the B-side. The remix was eventually included with the original on Lil Nas X's second EP, "7". The music video for the remix was released on May 17, 2019. It was directed by Calmatic, and has guest appearances by Chris Rock, HaHa Davis, Rico Nasty, Diplo, Jozzy, Young Kio and Vince Staples.


title: Old Town Road

text: On March 29, 2019, Lil Nas X danced to "Old Town Road" with the Atlanta Hawks cheerleaders during a basketball game at State Farm Arena. On April 29, 2019, Lil Nas X and Cyrus performed the live debut of "Old Town Road" as part of Diplo's set at the Stagecoach Festival. On June 24, 2019, Lil Nas X and Cyrus performed the song together on a saloon-themed stage for the 2019 BET Awards.


title: Old Town Road

text: On January 26, 2020, Lil Nas X performed "Old Town Road" at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards with Diplo, BTS, Mason Ramsey and Billy Ray Cyrus, before finishing his performance with "Rodeo" along with Nas.


title: Old Town Road

text: "Old Town Road" achieved a rare feat in "Billboard" history when it simultaneously charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts in March 2019. However, "Billboard" quietly removed "Old Town Road" from its Hot Country chart for "not [embracing] enough elements of today's country music". Had it not been disqualified, "Old Town Road" would have been the Hot Country Songs number-one song, in the chart dated April 6, 2019. Lil Nas X said he was "extremely disappointed" by the decision. In an interview, "Time" reporter Andrew R. Chow brought up "Billboard"s decision to remove "Old Town Road" from the country chart but to keep it on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart, asking Lil Nas X if he considered "Old Town Road" a country song. Lil Nas X replied, "The song is country trap. It's not one, it's not the other. It's both. It should be on both [charts]." Lil Nas X submitted the song for consideration in rap categories at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, but the award show's rap committee recategorized it in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, where it ultimately won.


title: Old Town Road

text: The exclusion of "Old Town Road" brought criticism of the evaluation of the work of non-white artists in the country genre, with the "Rolling Stone" writer Elias Leight referring to Beyoncé, another black artist, whose song "Daddy Lessons" failed to be considered a country song by The Recording Academy in 2016. Leight also pointed out other difficulties faced by black artists making cross-genre music, noting that the rapper Juice Wrld's "Death Race for Love" (2019) would "probably be the most commercially successful rock album of 2019", but would never appear on rock charts or playlists, another genre, like country, predominated by white artists. In the music journalist Robert Christgau's opinion, "Taking 'Old Town Road' off the country chart strikes me as racist pure and simple, because country radio remains racist regardless of the Darius Ruckers and Kane Browns it makes room for." In light of the criticism, "Billboard" later stated that the decision to remove "Old Town Road" from the Hot Country Songs chart had nothing to do with Lil Nas X's race. When asked if he believed the decision by "Billboard" had any racial undertones, Lil Nas X replied, "I believe whenever you're trying something new, it's always going to get some kind of bad reception."


title: Old Town Road

text: Despite being removed from the main Country Songs chart, "Old Town Road" managed to chart on "Billboard"'s Country Airplay chart, entering at number 53 and peaking at number 50. In response, Sony Music Nashville CEO Randy Goodman told "Billboard" that his team had started testing the song in some country radio markets, adding "it would be negligent not to look at it".


title: Old Town Road

text: In the United States, the original version of "Old Town Road" reached number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the week ending April 13, 2019; at one minute and 53 seconds in length, it became the shortest number-one single since "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" by Herman's Hermits in 1965 and the fifth-shortest in the history of the chart. In the following week, it and the newly released remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus received a combined 143 million streams, surpassing Drake's "In My Feelings", which in the previous year had amassed 116.2 million in the same period, as the song with the highest single-week streaming figure in the country. This song also became Cyrus's biggest hit in the U.S. since "Achy Breaky Heart" peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 27 years ago. "Old Town Road" continued to exceed 100 million streams in each of the eight following weeks, and in June 2019, was responsible for the three highest weekly U.S. streaming totals in the history of digital music, as well as nine of the eleven highest overall. In October 2019, "Old Town Road" became the fastest single in RIAA history to receive diamond certification in the United States. The certification, which is awarded to singles that attain national combined sales and streams of ten million units, was achieved by the song in its eleventh month of release. The single had sold 1.6 million digital copies in the United States by February 2020.


title: Old Town Road

text: "Old Town Road" topped the Hot 100 for nineteen consecutive weeks from April 13 to August 17, 2019. On August 24, it was finally unseated by Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy" which had waited in the runner-up spot for nine nonconsecutive weeks. "Old Town Road"'s overall run at number one is the longest in chart history, surpassing the previous record of sixteen weeks achieved by both "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men (1995–96), and "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (2017). In July 2019, "Old Town Road" also became the first number-one single on the "Rolling Stone" Top 100 chart when it held the position in the chart's inaugural edition. In accordance with their methodologies, "Billboard" and "Rolling Stone" each assign a single position to "Old Town Road" on their respective charts by combining the performance figures of every released version of the song determined to be sufficiently similar to the original. The former publication credits the entirety of the song's chart run solely to the remix featuring Cyrus.


title: Old Town Road

text: Elsewhere, the original version of the song topped the national singles charts in at least ten other countries — Australia (thirteen weeks), France and Norway (eight weeks each), Austria (six weeks); Switzerland (five weeks), Denmark, Germany and Ireland (four weeks each), Portugal (three weeks), and the United Kingdom (two weeks) — and charted within the top ten in more than five others. The remix featuring Cyrus achieved a record 19-weeks run at number one on the Canadian Hot 100, and peaked within the top five in more than five other markets. Both versions of the song were credited as number-one singles in Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand.


title: Old Town Road

text: Listed below are awards and nominations for both "Old Town Road" and "Old Town Road (Remix)" featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.


title: Old Town Road

text: The single's second official remix, "Old Town Road (Diplo Remix)", was released on April 29, 2019, with additional production by the American DJ Diplo. The country music website, "The Boot", described it as a "remix of [a] remix" as it still retained vocals from Billy Ray Cyrus. The remix was premiered at Diplo's set for the country music Stagecoach Festival alongside the first-ever live performance of "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X and Cyrus. Just before Lil Nas X and Cyrus' surprise on-stage appearance at Stagecoach 2019, Diplo claimed. "Let me tell you, ["Old Town Road" is] a country song." The Diplo remix peaked at number 24 on the RMNZ New Zealand Hot Singles chart. The remix is included on Diplo's second studio album, "" (2020).


title: Old Town Road

text: A third official remix, titled "Old Town Road (Remix)", was released on July 12, 2019. It retains Cyrus' guest appearance and adds the American rapper Young Thug and the American singer Mason Ramsey. The remix was released in an effort to keep "Old Town Road" at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100, as the song was two weeks away from tying for the all-time Hot 100 record held by "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men and "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee; it has since broken that record. In an interview with "Billboard" in March 2019, the producer YoungKio said that he would want Young Thug for a remix of "Old Town Road", saying, "I've listened to every single song of his, and I think he's qualified to do this remix. I've listened to "Beautiful Thugger Girls", and he has some country vibes on there." Young Thug has been previously credited with bringing country trap into the mainstream with his experimental mixtape, "Beautiful Thugger Girls" (2017). Lil Nas X called him a pioneer of bridging the gap between country and trap.


title: Old Town Road

text: The single's fourth official remix, "Old Town Road (Seoul Town Road Remix)", featuring the South Korean rapper RM of BTS was released on July 24, 2019. It is the only official remix to not feature Cyrus. Lil Nas X announced shortly afterwards that "Seoul Town Road" would be the final remix. It reached number eight on the RMNZ New Zealand Hot Singles chart.


title: Old Town Road

text: The American country singer Jake Owen and the American rapper Lil Wayne both recorded verses for planned remixes that were unofficially released. Owen's remix was shared on "The Bobby Bones Show" in May 2019 and his verse was later replaced by Ramsey. Lil Wayne's remix was leaked on July 25, 2019, and he performed it live at Lollapalooza the next month. The American rapper Cupcakke released her leaked remix of "Old Town Road", titled "Old Town Hoe", on April 17, 2019. The remix reinterprets the lyric "I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more" in a sexually explicit way. A music video was released in May 2019 and has Cupcakke and her backup dancers riding toy horses and handling phallic objects, including lollipops, water bottles and corn on the cob. Lil Nas X responded favorably to the remix.


title: Old Town Road

text: The actor-comedian Omi Vaidya parodied the song with "Oak Tree Road", a song about Asian Indian culture in the US. Postmodern Jukebox also covered the song, doing it in the style of a New Orleans blues song. Miche Braden sang the lead vocals.


title: Old Town Road

text: The song was featured in an episode of "", fittingly titled "Old Towne Road", with Lil Nas X guest starring as one of the voices. Rather than Billy Ray Cyrus' section of the song, the character of Bobby Proud, voiced by Cedric the Entertainer, joins in with newly written lyrics.


title: Calligraphy

text: Calligraphy (from ) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner".


title: Calligraphy

text: Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable. Classical calligraphy differs from type design and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both.


title: Calligraphy

text: Calligraphy continues to flourish in the forms of wedding invitations and event invitations, font design and typography, original hand-lettered logo design, religious art, announcements, graphic design and commissioned calligraphic art, cut stone inscriptions, and memorial documents. It is also used for props and moving images for film and television, and also for testimonials, birth and death certificates, maps, and other written works.


title: Calligraphy

text: The principal tools for a calligrapher are the pen and the brush. Calligraphy pens write with nibs that may be flat, round, or pointed. For some decorative purposes, multi-nibbed pens—steel brushes—can be used. However, works have also been created with felt-tip and ballpoint pens, although these works do not employ angled lines. There are some styles of calligraphy, such as Gothic script, that require a stub nib pen.


title: Calligraphy

text: Writing ink is usually water-based and is much less viscous than the oil-based inks used in printing. Certain specialty paper with high ink absorption and constant texture enables cleaner lines, although parchment or vellum is often used, as a knife can be used to erase imperfections and a light-box is not needed to allow lines to pass through it. Normally, light boxes and templates are used to achieve straight lines without pencil markings detracting from the work. Ruled paper, either for a light box or direct use, is most often ruled every quarter or half inch, although inch spaces are occasionally used. This is the case with (hence the name), and college-ruled paper often acts as a guideline well.


title: Calligraphy

text: Chinese calligraphy is locally called ' or ' ( or in traditional Chinese, literally "the method or law of writing"); Japanese calligraphy is ' (, literally "the way or principle of writing"); and Korean calligraphy is called ' (/, literally "the art of writing"); The calligraphy of East Asian characters continues to form an important and appreciated constituent of contemporary traditional East Asian culture.


title: Calligraphy

text: In ancient China, the oldest known Chinese characters are oracle bone script (), carved on ox scapulae and tortoise plastrons, because the rulers in the Shang Dynasty carved pits on such animals' bones and then baked them to gain auspice of military affairs, agricultural harvest, or even procreating and weather. During the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, the characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved. With the development of Bronzeware script () and Large Seal script () "cursive" signs continued. Mao Gong Ding is one of the most famous and typical Bronzeware scripts in Chinese calligraphic history. It has 500 characters on the bronze which is the largest number of bronze inscription we have discovered so far. Moreover, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters.


title: Calligraphy

text: In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles—some dating from 200 BCE, and in Small Seal script ( ) style—are still .


title: Calligraphy

text: About 220 BCE, the emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first to conquer the entire Chinese basin, imposed several reforms, among them Li Si's character unification, which created a set of 3300 standardized Small Seal characters. Despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, few papers survive from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles.


title: Calligraphy

text: The Clerical script (/) () which is more regularized, and in some ways similar to modern text, were also authorised under Qin Shi Huang.


title: Calligraphy

text: Between clerical script and traditional regular script, there is another transitional type of calligraphic work called Wei Bei. It started during the North and South dynasties (420 to 589 CE) and ended before the Tang Dynasty (618–907).


title: Calligraphy

text: Traditional regular script (), still in use today, and attributed to Wang Xizhi (, 303–361) and his followers, is even more regularized. Its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang (926–933), who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in Kaishu. Printing technologies here allowed a shape stabilization. The Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have been made, for example in the shape of which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 as in modern books. The Kangxi and current shapes have tiny differences, while stroke order is still the same, according to the old style.


title: Calligraphy

text: Styles which did not survive include , a mix of 80% Small Seal script and 20% Clerical script. Some variant Chinese characters were unorthodox or locally used for centuries. They were generally understood but always rejected in official texts. Some of these unorthodox variants, in addition to some newly created characters, compose the simplified Chinese character set.


title: Calligraphy

text: Traditional East Asian writing uses the Four Treasures of the Study (/): ink brushes known as (/), Chinese ink, paper, and inkstones to write Chinese characters. These instruments of writing are also known as the "Four Friends of the Study" () in Korea. Besides the traditional four tools, desk pads and paperweights are also used.


title: Calligraphy

text: Many different parameters influence the final result of a calligrapher's work. Physical parameters include the shape, size, stretch, and hair type of the ink brush; the color, color density and water density of the ink; as well as the paper's water absorption speed and surface texture. The calligrapher's technique also influences the result, as the look of finished characters are influenced by the quantity of ink and water the calligrapher lets the brush take and by the pressure, inclination, and direction of the brush. Changing these variables produces thinner or bolder strokes, and smooth or toothed borders. Eventually, the speed, accelerations and decelerations of a skilled calligrapher's movements aim to give "spirit" to the characters, greatly influencing their final shapes.


title: Calligraphy

text: Cursive styles such as "" (/)(semi-cursive or running script) and "" (/)(cursive, rough script, or grass script) are less constrained and faster, where more movements made by the writing implement are visible. These styles' stroke orders vary more, sometimes creating radically different forms. They are descended from Clerical script, in the same time as Regular script (Han Dynasty), but ' and ' were used for personal notes only, and never used as a standard. The "" style was highly appreciated in Emperor Wu of Han reign (140–187 CE).


title: Calligraphy

text: Examples of modern printed styles are Song from the Song Dynasty's printing press, and sans-serif. These are not considered traditional styles, and are normally not written.


title: Calligraphy

text: Japanese and Korean calligraphy were each greatly influenced by Chinese calligraphy. Calligraphy has also influenced ink and wash painting, which is accomplished using similar tools and techniques. Calligraphy has influenced most major art styles in East Asia, including ink and wash painting, a style of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean painting based entirely on calligraphy.


title: Calligraphy

text: The Japanese and Koreans have also developed their own specific sensibilities and styles of calligraphy while incorporating Chinese influences.


title: Calligraphy

text: Japanese calligraphy goes out of the set of CJK strokes to also include local alphabets such as hiragana and katakana, with specific problematics such as new curves and moves, and specific materials (Japanese paper, , and Japanese ink).


title: Calligraphy

text: The modern Korean alphabet and its use of the circle required the creation of a new technique not used in traditional Chinese calligraphy.


title: Calligraphy

text: Tibetan calligraphy is central to Tibetan culture. The script is derived from Indic scripts. The nobles of Tibet, such as the High Lamas and inhabitants of the Potala Palace, were usually capable calligraphers. Tibet has been a center of Buddhism for several centuries, and that religion places a great deal of significance on written word. This does not provide for a large body of secular pieces, although they do exist (but are usually related in some way to Tibetan Buddhism). Almost all high religious writing involved calligraphy, including letters sent by the Dalai Lama and other religious and secular authority. Calligraphy is particularly evident on their prayer wheels, although this calligraphy was forged rather than scribed, much like Arab and Roman calligraphy is often found on buildings. Although originally done with a reed, Tibetan calligraphers now use chisel tipped pens and markers as well.


title: Calligraphy

text: Temporary calligraphy, also called water calligraphy, is a practice of water-only calligraphy on the floor, which dries out within minutes. This practice is especially appreciated by the new generation of retired Chinese in public parks of China. These will often open studio-shops in tourist towns offering traditional Chinese calligraphy to tourists. Other than writing the clients name, they also sell fine brushes as souvenirs and limestone carved stamps.


title: Calligraphy

text: Since late 1980s, a few Chinese artists have branched out traditional Chinese calligraphy to a new territory by mingling Chinese characters with English letters; notable new forms of calligraphy are Xu Bing's square calligraphy and DanNie's coolligraphy or cooligraphy.


title: Calligraphy

text: The Philippines has numerous ancient and indigenous scripts collectively called as Suyat scripts. Various ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines prior to Spanish colonization in the 16th century up to the independence era in the 21st century have used the scripts with various mediums. By the end of colonialism, only four of the suyat scripts survived and continue to be used by certain communities in everyday life. These four scripts are Hanunó'o/Hanunoo of the Hanuno'o Mangyan people, Buhid/Build of the Buhid Mangyan people, Tagbanwa script of the Tagbanwa people, and Palaw'an/Pala'wan of the Palaw'an people. All four scripts were inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, under the name "Philippine Paleographs (Hanunoo, Build, Tagbanua and Pala’wan)", in 1999.


title: Calligraphy

text: Due to dissent from colonialism, many artists and cultural experts have revived the usage of suyat scripts that went extinct due to Spanish persecution. These scripts being revived include the Kulitan script of the Kapampangan people, the badlit script of various Visayan ethnic groups, the Iniskaya script of the Eskaya people, the Baybayin script of the Tagalog people, and the Kur-itan script of the Ilocano people, among many others. Due to the diversity of suyat scripts, all calligraphy written in suyat scripts are collectively called as Filipino suyat calligraphy, although each are distinct from each other. Calligraphy using the Western alphabet and the Arabic alphabet are also prevalent in the Philippines due to its colonial past, but the Western alphabet and the Arabic alphabet are not considered as suyat, and therefore Western-alphabet and Arabic calligraphy are not considered as suyat calligraphy.


title: Calligraphy

text: Vietnamese calligraphy is called (, literally "the way of letters or words") and is based on Chữ Nôm and Chữ Hán, an old Vietnamese writing system based on Chinese characters and replaced it with the Latin alphabet. However, the calligraphic traditions continue to be preserved.


title: Calligraphy

text: Religious texts are the most frequent purpose for Indian calligraphy. Monastic Buddhist communities had members trained in calligraphy and shared responsibility for duplicating sacred scriptures. Jaina traders incorporated illustrated manuscripts celebrating Jaina saints. These manuscripts were produced using inexpensive material, like palm leave and birch, with fine calligraphy.


title: Calligraphy

text: Nepalese calligraphy is primarily created using the Ranjana script. The script itself, along with its derivatives (like Lantsa, Phagpa, Kutila) are used in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Leh, Mongolia, coastal Japan, and Korea to write "Om mani padme hum" and other sacred Buddhist texts, mainly those derived from Sanskrit and Pali.


title: Calligraphy

text: Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters.


title: Calligraphy

text: Ethiopian (Abyssinian) calligraphy began with the Ge'ez script, which replaced Epigraphic South Arabian in the Kingdom of Aksum, that was developed specifically for Ethiopian Semitic languages. In those languages that use it, such as Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is called "", which means script or alphabet. The Epigraphic South Arabian letters were used for a few inscriptions into the 8th century, though not any South Arabian language since Dʿmt.


title: Calligraphy

text: Early inscriptions in Ge'ez and Ge'ez script have been dated to as early as the 5th century BCE, and in a sort of proto-Ge'ez written in ESA since the 9th century BCE. Ge'ez literature begins with the Christianization of Ethiopia (and the civilization of Axum) in the 4th century, during the reign of Ezana of Axum.


title: Calligraphy

text: The Ge'ez script is read from left to right and has been adapted to write other languages, usually ones that are also Semitic. The most widespread use is for Amharic in Ethiopia and Tigrinya in Eritrea and Ethiopia.


title: Calligraphy

text: Maya calligraphy was expressed via Maya glyphs; modern Maya calligraphy is mainly used on seals and monuments in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Maya glyphs are rarely used in government offices; however in Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo, calligraphy in Maya languages is written in Latin script rather than Maya glyphs. Some commercial companies in southern Mexico use Maya glyphs as symbols of their business. Some community associations and modern Maya brotherhoods use Maya glyphs as symbols of their groups.


title: Calligraphy

text: Most of the archaeological sites in Mexico such as Chichen Itza, Labna, Uxmal, Edzna, Calakmul, etc. have glyphs in their structures. Carved stone monuments known as stele are common sources of ancient Maya calligraphy.


title: Calligraphy

text: Calligraphy in Europe recognizable in the use of the Latin script in Western Europe, and in the use of the Greek, Armenian, and Georgian, and Cyrillic scripts in Eastern Europe.


title: Calligraphy

text: The Latin alphabet appeared about 600 BCE in ancient Rome, and by the first century CE it had developed into Roman imperial capitals carved on stones, rustic capitals painted on walls, and Roman cursive for daily use. In the second and third centuries the uncial lettering style developed. As writing withdrew to monasteries, uncial script was found more suitable for copying the Bible and other religious texts. It was the monasteries which preserved calligraphic traditions during the fourth and fifth centuries, when the Roman Empire fell and Europe entered the early Middle Ages.


title: Calligraphy

text: At the height of the Roman Empire, its power reached as far as Great Britain; when the empire fell, its literary influence remained. The Semi-uncial generated the Irish Semi-uncial, the small Anglo-Saxon. Each region developed its own standards following the main monastery of the region (i.e. Merovingian script, Laon script, Luxeuil script, Visigothic script, Beneventan script), which are mostly cursive and hardly readable.


title: Calligraphy

text: Christian churches promoted the development of writing through the prolific copying of the Bible, the Breviary, and other sacred texts. Two distinct styles of writing known as uncial and half-uncial (from the Latin , or "inch") developed from a variety of Roman bookhands. The 7th–9th centuries in northern Europe were the heyday of Celtic illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Durrow, Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells.


title: Calligraphy

text: Charlemagne's devotion to improved scholarship resulted in the recruiting of "a crowd of scribes", according to Alcuin, the Abbot of York. Alcuin developed the style known as the Caroline or Carolingian minuscule. The first manuscript in this hand was the Godescalc Evangelistary (finished 783)—a Gospel book written by the scribe Godescalc. Carolingian remains the one progenitor hand from which modern booktype descends.


title: Calligraphy

text: In the eleventh century, the Caroline evolved into the blackletter ("Gothic") script, which was more compact and made it possible to fit more text on a page. The Gothic calligraphy styles became dominant throughout Europe; and in 1454, when Johannes Gutenberg developed the first printing press in Mainz, Germany, he adopted the Gothic style, making it the first typeface.


title: Calligraphy

text: In the 15th century, the rediscovery of old Carolingian texts encouraged the creation of the humanist minuscule or . The 17th century saw the Batarde script from France, and the 18th century saw the English script spread across Europe and world through their books.


title: Calligraphy

text: In the mid-1600s French officials, flooded with documents written in various hands and varied levels of skill, complained that many such documents were beyond their ability to decipher. The Office of the Financier thereupon restricted all legal documents to three hands, namely the Coulee, the Rhonde, (known as Round hand in English) and a Speed Hand sometimes called the Bastarda.


title: Calligraphy

text: While there were many great French masters at the time, the most influential in proposing these hands was Louis Barbedor, who published "Les Ecritures Financière Et Italienne Bastarde Dans Leur Naturel" circa 1650.


title: Calligraphy

text: With the destruction of the Camera Apostolica during the sack of Rome (1527), the capitol for writing masters moved to Southern France. By 1600, the Italic Cursiva began to be replaced by a technological refinement, the Italic Chancery Circumflessa, which in turn fathered the Rhonde and later English Roundhand.


title: Calligraphy

text: In England, Ayres and Banson popularized the Round Hand while Snell is noted for his reaction to them, and warnings of restraint and proportionality. Still Edward Crocker began publishing his copybooks 40 years before the aforementioned.


title: Calligraphy

text: Other European styles use the same tools and practices, but differ by character set and stylistic preferences.


title: Calligraphy

text: For Slavonic lettering, the history of the Slavonic and consequently Russian writing systems differs fundamentally from the one of the Latin language. It evolved from the 10th century to today.


title: Calligraphy

text: Unlike a typeface, handwritten calligraphy is characterised by irregularity in the characters which vary in size, shape, style, and color, producing a distinct aesthetic value, although it may also make the content illegible to readers. As with Chinese or Islamic calligraphy, Western calligraphic script employed the use of strict rules and shapes. Quality writing had a rhythm and regularity to the letters, with a "geometrical" order of the lines on the page. Each character had, and often still has, a precise stroke order.


title: Calligraphy

text: Sacred Western calligraphy has some unique features, such as the illumination of the first letter of each book or chapter in medieval times. A decorative "carpet page" may precede the literature, filled with ornate, geometrical depictions of bold-hued animals. The Lindisfarne Gospels (715–720 CE) are an early example. Many of the themes and variations of today's contemporary Western calligraphy are found in the pages of The Saint John's Bible. A particularly modern example is Timothy Botts' illustrated edition of the Bible, with 360 calligraphic images as well as a calligraphy typeface.


title: Calligraphy

text: Islamic calligraphy has evolved alongside Islam and the Arabic language. As it is based on Arabic letters, some call it "Arabic calligraphy". However the term "Islamic calligraphy" is a more appropriate term as it comprises all works of calligraphy by Muslim calligraphers of different national cultures, like Persian or Ottoman calligraphy, from Al-Andalus in medieval Spain to China.


title: Calligraphy

text: Islamic calligraphy is associated with geometric Islamic art (arabesque) on the walls and ceilings of mosques as well as on the page or other materials. Contemporary artists in the Islamic world may draw on the heritage of calligraphy to create modern calligraphic inscriptions, like corporate logos, or abstractions.


title: Calligraphy

text: Instead of recalling something related to the spoken word, calligraphy for Muslims is a visible expression of the highest art of all, the art of the spiritual world. Calligraphy has arguably become the most venerated form of Islamic art because it provides a link between the languages of the Muslims with the religion of Islam. The Qur'an has played an important role in the development and evolution of the Arabic language, and by extension, calligraphy in the Arabic alphabet. Proverbs and passages from the Qur'an are still sources for Islamic calligraphy.


title: Calligraphy

text: During the Ottoman civilization, Islamic calligraphy attained special prominence. The city of Istanbul is an open exhibition hall for all kinds and varieties of calligraphy, from inscriptions in mosques to fountains, schools, houses, etc.


title: Calligraphy

text: Persian calligraphy has been present in the Persian region before Islamisation. In Zoroastrianism, beautiful and clear writings were always praised.


title: Calligraphy

text: It is believed that ancient Persian script was invented by about 600–500 BCE to provide monument inscriptions for the Achaemenid kings. These scripts consisted of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal nail-shape letters, which is why it is called cuneiform script (lit. "script of nails") ("") in Persian. Centuries later, other scripts such as "Pahlavi" and "Avestan" scripts were used in ancient Persia. Pahlavi was a middle Persian script developed from the Aramaic script and became the official script of the Sassanian empire (224–651 CE).


title: Calligraphy

text: The Nasta'liq style is the most popular contemporary style among classical Persian calligraphy scripts; Persian calligraphers call it the "bride of calligraphy scripts". This calligraphy style has been based on such a strong structure that it has changed very little since Mir Ali Tabrizi had found the optimum composition of the letters and graphical rules. It has just been fine-tuned during the past seven centuries. It has very strict rules for graphical shape of the letters and for combination of the letters, words, and composition of the whole calligraphy piece.


title: Calligraphy

text: After printing became ubiquitous from the 15th century onward, the production of illuminated manuscripts began to decline. However, the rise of printing did not mean the end of calligraphy. A clear distinction between handwriting and more elaborate forms of lettering and script began to make its way into manuscripts and books at the beginning of the 16th century.


title: Calligraphy

text: The modern revival of calligraphy began at the end of the 19th century, influenced by the aesthetics and philosophy of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. Edward Johnston is regarded as being the father of modern calligraphy. After studying published copies of manuscripts by architect William Harrison Cowlishaw, he was introduced to William Lethaby in 1898, principal of the Central School of Arts and Crafts, who advised him to study manuscripts at the British Museum.


title: Calligraphy

text: This triggered Johnston's interest in the art of calligraphy with the use of a broad-edged pen. He began a teaching course in calligraphy at the Central School in Southampton Row, London from September 1899, where he influenced the typeface designer and sculptor Eric Gill. He was commissioned by Frank Pick to design a new typeface for London Underground, still used today (with minor modifications).


title: Calligraphy

text: He has been credited for reviving the art of modern penmanship and lettering single-handedly through his books and teachings – his handbook on the subject, "Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering" (1906) was particularly influential on a generation of British typographers and calligraphers, including Graily Hewitt, Stanley Morison, Eric Gill, Alfred Fairbank and Anna Simons. Johnston also devised the crafted round calligraphic handwriting style, written with a broad pen, known today as the "Foundational hand". Johnston initially taught his students an uncial hand using a flat pen angle, but later taught his hand using a slanted pen angle. He first referred to this hand as "Foundational Hand" in his 1909 publication, "Manuscript & Inscription Letters for Schools and Classes and for the Use of Craftsmen".


title: Calligraphy

text: Graily Hewitt taught at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and published together with Johnston throughout the early part of the century. Hewitt was central to the revival of gilding in calligraphy, and his prolific output on type design also appeared between 1915 and 1943. He is attributed with the revival of gilding with gesso and gold leaf on vellum. Hewitt helped to found the Society of Scribes & Illuminators (SSI) in 1921, probably the world's foremost calligraphy society.


title: Calligraphy

text: Hewitt is not without both critics and supporters in his rendering of Cennino Cennini's medieval gesso recipes. Donald Jackson, a British calligrapher, has sourced his gesso recipes from earlier centuries a number of which are not presently in English translation. Graily Hewitt created the patent announcing the award to Prince Philip of the title of Duke of Edinburgh on November 19, 1947, the day before his marriage to Queen Elizabeth.


title: Calligraphy

text: Johnston's pupil, Anna Simons, was instrumental in sparking off interest in calligraphy in Germany with her German translation of "Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering" in 1910. Austrian Rudolf Larisch, a teacher of lettering at the Vienna School of Art, published six lettering books that greatly influenced German-speaking calligraphers. Because German-speaking countries had not abandoned the Gothic hand in printing, Gothic also had a powerful effect on their styles.


title: Calligraphy

text: Rudolf Koch was a friend and younger contemporary of Larisch. Koch's books, type designs, and teaching made him one of the most influential calligraphers of the 20th century in northern Europe and later in the U.S. Larisch and Koch taught and inspired many European calligraphers, notably Karlgeorg Hoefer, and Hermann Zapf.


title: Calligraphy

text: Contemporary typefaces used by computers, from word processors like Microsoft Word or Apple Pages to professional design software packages like Adobe InDesign, owe a considerable debt to the past and to a small number of professional typeface designers today.