title: Dolby Digital

text: While they forgot about the plan, programmer Daniel Kawakami made a hot issue by applying Auzentech Prelude DDL module back to Creative X-Fi cards by disguising the hardware identity as Auzentech Prelude.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Creative Labs alleged Kawakami violated their intellectual property and demanded he cease distributing his modified drivers.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Eventually Creative struck an agreement with Dolby Laboratories regarding the Dolby license royalty by arranging that the licensing cost be folded into the purchase price of the Creative X-Fi PCI cards rather than as a royalty paid by Creative themselves. Based on the agreement, in September 2008 Creative began selling the "Dolby Digital Live" packs enabling Dolby Digital Live on Creative's X-Fi PCI series of sound cards. It can be purchased and downloaded from Creative. Subsequently, Creative added their "DTS Connect" pack to the DDL pack at no added cost.


title: Dolby Digital

text: E-AC-3 (Dolby Digital Plus) is an enhanced coding system based on the AC-3 codec. It offers increased bitrates (up to 6.144 Mbit/s), support for even more audio channels (up to 15.1 discrete channels in the future), and improved coding techniques (only at low data rates) to reduce compression artifacts, enabling lower data rates than those supported by AC-3 (e.g. 5.1-channel audio at 256 kbit/s). It is not backward compatible with existing AC-3 hardware, though E-AC-3 codecs generally are capable of transcoding to AC-3 for equipment connected via S/PDIF. E-AC-3 decoders can also decode AC-3 bitstreams. The fourth generation Apple TV supports E-AC-3. The discontinued HD DVD system directly supported E-AC-3. Blu-ray Disc offers E-AC-3 as an option to graft added channels onto an otherwise 5.1 AC-3 stream, as well as for delivery of secondary audio content (e.g. director's commentary) that is intended to be mixed with the primary audio soundtrack in the Blu-ray Disc player.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Dolby AC-4 is an audio compression standard supporting multiple audio channels and/or audio objects. Support for 5.1 channel audio is mandatory and additional channels up to 7.1.4 are optional. AC-4 provides a 50% reduction in bit rate over AC-3/Dolby Digital Plus.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Dolby TrueHD, developed by Dolby Laboratories, is an advanced lossless audio codec based on Meridian Lossless Packing. Support for the codec was mandatory for HD DVD and is optional for Blu-ray Disc hardware. Dolby TrueHD supports 24-bit bit depths and sample rates up to 192 kHz. Maximum bitrate is 18 Mbit/s while it supports up to 16 audio channels (HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc standards currently limit the maximum number of audio channels to eight). It supports metadata, including dialog normalization and Dynamic Range Control.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Although commonly associated with the 5.1 channel configuration, Dolby Digital allows a number of different channel selections. The options are:


title: Dolby Digital

text: These configurations optionally include the extra low-frequency effects (LFE) channel. The last two with stereo surrounds optionally use Dolby Digital EX matrix encoding to add an extra Rear Surround channel.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Many Dolby Digital decoders are equipped with downmixing to distribute encoded channels to speakers. This includes such functions as playing surround information through the front speakers if surround speakers are unavailable, and distributing the center channel to left and right if no center speaker is available. When outputting to separate equipment over a 2-channel connection, a Dolby Digital decoder can optionally encode the output using Dolby Surround to preserve surround information.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Dolby Digital audio is used on DVD-Video and other purely digital media, like home cinema. In this format, the AC-3 bitstream is interleaved with the video and control bitstreams.


title: Dolby Digital

text: The system is used in bandwidth-limited applications other than DVD-Video, such as digital TV. The AC-3 standard allows a maximum coded bit rate of 640 kbit/s. 35 mm film prints use a fixed rate of 320 kbit/s, which is the same as the maximum bit rate for 2-channel MP3. DVD-Video discs are limited to 448 kbit/s, although many players can successfully play higher-rate bitstreams (which are non-compliant with the DVD specification). HD DVD limits AC-3 to 448 kbit/s. ATSC and digital cable standards limit AC-3 to 448 kbit/s. Blu-ray Disc, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox game console can output an AC-3 signal at a full 640 kbit/s. Some Sony PlayStation 2 console games are able to output AC-3 standard audio as well, primarily during pre-rendered cutscenes.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Dolby is part of a group of organizations involved in the development of AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), part of MPEG specifications, and considered the successor to MP3.


title: Dolby Digital

text: Dolby Digital Plus (DD-Plus) and TrueHD are supported in HD-DVD, as mandatory codecs, and in Blu-ray Disc, as optional codecs.


title: Dolby Digital

text: In the LaserDisc world "AC3RF" is the term widely placed on connectors of players that support Dolby Digital. Specific demodulators and receivers from the LaserDisc era (1990s thru early 2000s) also include placement of this term on connectors.


title: Dolby Digital

text: The data layout of AC-3 is described by simplified "C-like" language in official specifications. An AC-3 stream is a series of frames; the frame size code is used along with the sample rate code to determine the number of (2-byte)


title: Dolby Digital

text: words before the next syncword. Channel blocks can be either long, in which case the entire block is processed as single modified discrete cosine transform, or short, in which case two half length transforms are performed on the block. Below is a simplified AC-3 header. A detailed description is in the ATSC "Digital Audio Compression (AC-3) (E-AC-3) Standard", section 5.4.


title: Dolby Digital

text: AC3 was covered by patents (expired since March 2017). Patents were used to ask to pay a commercial license to publish an application that decodes AC3. This led some audio app developers to ban AC3 from their apps, although the open source VLC media player supported AC-3 audio without having paid for any kind of patent license fee.


title: Dolby Digital

text: In Dolby's 2005 original and amended S-1 filings with the SEC, Dolby acknowledged that "Patents relating to our Dolby Digital technologies expire between 2008 and 2017."


title: Dolby Digital

text: A free ATSC A/52 (AC3) stream decoder, liba52, is available under the GNU General Public License. FFmpeg and the VLC media player each include code for handling AC-3.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker (Comanche "kwana", "smell, odor") ( – February 20, 1911) was a war leader of the Kwahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was likely born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band of Tabby-nocca and grew up among the Kwahadis, the son of Kwahadi Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been abducted as a nine-year-old child and assimilated into the Nokoni tribe. Following the apprehension of several Kiowa chiefs in 1871, Quanah Parker emerged as a dominant figure in the Red River War, clashing repeatedly with Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. With European-Americans hunting American bison, the Comanches' primary sustenance, into near extinction, Quanah Parker eventually surrendered and peaceably led the Kwahadi to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker was never elected chief by his people but was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche Nation. He became a primary emissary of southwest indigenous Americans to the United States legislature. In civilian life, he gained wealth as a rancher, settling near Cache, Oklahoma. Though he encouraged Christianization of Comanche people, he also advocated the syncretic Native American Church alternative, and fought for the legal use of peyote in the movement's religious practices. He was elected deputy sheriff of Lawton in 1902. After his death in 1911, the leadership title of Chief was replaced with chairman; Quanah Parker is thereby described as the "Last Chief of the Comanche," a term also applied to Horseback.


title: Quanah Parker

text: He is buried at Chief's Knoll on Fort Sill. Many cities and highway systems in southwest Oklahoma and north Texas, once southern Comancheria, bear reference to his name.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker's mother, Cynthia Ann Parker (born ), was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s. She was captured in 1836 () by Comanches during the raid of Fort Parker near present-day Groesbeck, Texas. Given the Comanche name "Nadua" (Foundling), she was adopted into the Nokoni band of Comanches, as foster daughter of Tabby-nocca.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Assimilated into the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker married the Kwahadi warrior chief Peta Nocona, also known as Puhtocnocony, Noconie, Tah-con-ne-ah-pe-ah, or Nocona ("Lone Wanderer").


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker's paternal grandfather was the renowned Kwahadi chief Iron Jacket (Puhihwikwasu'u), a warrior of the earlier Comanche-American Wars, famous among his people for wearing a Spanish coat of mail.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Cynthia Ann Parker and Nocona's first child was Quanah Parker, born in the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma. In a letter to rancher Charles Goodnight, Quanah Parker writes, "From the best information I have, I was born about 1850 on Elk Creek just below the Wichita Mountains." Alternative sources cite his birthplace as Laguna Sabinas/Cedar Lake in Gaines County, Texas.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Cynthia Ann Parker and Nocona also had another son, "Pecos" ("Pecan"), and a daughter, "Topsana" (Prairie Flower). In December 1860, Cynthia Ann Parker and Topsana were captured in the Battle of Pease River. American forces were led by Sgt. John Spangler, who commanded Company H of the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, and Texas Rangers under Sul Ross would claim that at the end of the battle, he wounded Peta Nocona, who was thereafter killed by Spangler's Mexican servant but this was disputed by eyewitnesses among the Texas Rangers and by Quanah Parker. It was believed that Quanah Parker and his brother Pecos were the only two to have escaped on horseback, and were tracked by Ranger Charles Goodnight but escaped to rendezvous with other Nokoni. Some, including Quanah Parker himself, claim this story is false and that he, his brother, and his father Peta Nocona were not at the battle, that they were at the larger camp miles away, and that Peta Nocona died years later of illness caused by wounds from battles with Apache.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Cynthia Ann Parker, along with her infant daughter Topsana, were taken by the Texas Rangers against her will to Cynthia Ann Parker's brother's home. After 24 years with the Comanche, Cynthia Ann Parker refused re-assimilation. Topsana died of an illness in 1863. Cynthia Ann Parker committed suicide by voluntary starvation in March 1871.


title: Quanah Parker

text: In the Comanche language, "kwana" means "an odor" or "a smell". Comanche warriors often took on more active, masculine names in maturity, but Quanah Parker retained the name his mother gave him, initially in tribute to her after her recapture.


title: Quanah Parker

text: After Peta Nocona's death (c. 1864), being now Parra-o-coom ("Bull Bear") the head chief of the Kwahadi people, Horseback, the head chief of the Nokoni people, took young Quanah Parker and his brother Pecos under his wing. After Peta Nocona and Iron Jacket, Horseback taught them the ways of the Comanche warrior, and Quanah Parker grew to considerable standing as a warrior. He left and rejoined the Kwahadi band with warriors from another band. Quanah Parker surrendered to Mackenzie and was taken to Fort Sill, Indian Territory where he led the Comanches successfully for a number of years on the reservation. Quanah Parker was never elected principal chief of the Comanche by the tribe. The U.S. government appointed him principal chief of the entire nation once the people had gathered on the reservation and later introduced general elections.


title: Quanah Parker

text: In October 1867, when Quanah Parker was only a young man, he had come along with the Comanche chiefs as an observer at treaty negotiations at Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Horseback made a statement about Quanah Parker's refusal to sign the treaty. In the early 1870s, the Plains Indians were losing the battle for their land with the United States government. Following the capture of the Kiowa chiefs Sitting Bear, Big Tree, and Satanta, the last two paroled in 1873 after two years thanks to the firm and stubborn behaviour of Guipago, the Kiowa, Comanche, and Southern Cheyenne tribes joined forces in several battles. Colonel Ranald Mackenzie led U.S. Army forces in rounding up or killing the remaining Indians who had not settled on reservations.


title: Quanah Parker

text: In 1873, Isatai'i, a Comanche claiming to be a medicine man, called for all the Comanche bands to gather together for a Sun Dance, even though that ritual was Kiowa, and had never been a Comanche practice. The bands gathered in May on the Red River, near present-day Texola, Oklahoma. At that gathering, Isatai'i and Quanah Parker recruited warriors for raids into Texas to avenge slain relatives. Other Comanche chiefs, notably Isa-Rosa ("White Wolf") and Tabananika ("Sound of the Sunrise") of the Yamparika, and Big Red Meat of the Nokoni band, identified the buffalo hide merchants as the real threat to their way of life. They suggested that if Quanah Parker were to attack anybody, he should attack the merchants. A war party of around 250 warriors, composed mainly of Comanches and Cheyennes, who were impressed by Isatai'i's claim of protective medicine to protect them from their enemies' bullets, headed into Texas towards the trading post of Adobe Walls. The raid should have been a slaughter, but the saloonkeeper had heard about the coming raid and kept his customers from going to bed by offering free drinks. Around 4 am, the raiders drove down into the valley. Quanah Parker and his band were unable to penetrate the two-foot thick sod walls and were repelled by the hide merchants' long-range .50 caliber Sharps rifles. As they retreated, Quanah Parker's horse was shot out from under him at five hundred yards. He hid behind a buffalo carcass, and was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off a powder horn around his neck and lodged between his shoulder blade and his neck. The wound was not serious, and Quanah Parker was rescued and brought back out of the range of the buffalo guns.


title: Quanah Parker

text: With their food source depleted, and under constant pressure from the army, the Kwahadi Comanche finally surrendered in 1875. With Colonel Mackenzie and Indian Agent James M. Hayworth, Parker helped settle the Comanche on the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in southwestern Indian Territory.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Parker went on hunting trips with President Theodore Roosevelt, who often visited him. Nevertheless, he rejected both monogamy and traditional Protestant Christianity in favor of the Native American Church Movement, of which he was a founder.


title: Quanah Parker

text: The story of the unique friendship that grew between Quanah Parker and the Burnett family is addressed in the exhibition of cultural artifacts that were given to the Burnett family from the Parker family. The presentation of a cultural relic as significant as Quanah Parker's war lance was not done lightly. It is a clear indication of the high esteem to which the Burnett family was regarded by the Parkers. The correspondence between Quanah Parker and Samuel Burk Burnett, Sr. (1849–1922) and his son Thomas Loyd Burnett (1871–1938), expressed mutual admiration and respect. The historical record mentions little of Quanah Parker until his presence in the attack on the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874. Fragmented information exists indicating Quanah Parker had interactions with the Apache at about this time.


title: Quanah Parker

text: This association may have related to his taking up the Native American Church, or peyote religion. Quanah Parker was said to have taken an Apache wife, but their union was short-lived. The Apache dress, bag and staff in the exhibit may be a remnant of this time in Quanah Parker's early adult life. With the buffalo nearly exterminated and having suffered heavy loss of horses and lodges at the hands of the US military, Quanah Parker was one of the leaders to bring the Kwahadi (Antelope) band of Comanches into Fort Sill during late May and early June 1875. This brought an end to their nomadic life on the southern plains and the beginning of an adjustment to more sedentary life. Burk Burnett began moving cattle from South Texas in 1874 to near present-day Wichita Falls, Texas. There he established his ranch headquarters in 1881. Changing weather patterns and severe drought caused grasslands to wither and die in Texas. Burnett and other ranchers met with Comanche and Kiowa tribes to lease land on their reservation—nearly just north of the Red River in Oklahoma.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Originally, Quanah Parker, like many of his contemporaries, was opposed to the opening of tribal lands for grazing by Anglo ranching interests. But, Quanah Parker changed his position and forged close relationships with a number of Texas cattlemen, such as Charles Goodnight and the Burnett family. As early as 1880, Quanah Parker was working with these new associates in building his own herds. In 1884, due largely to Quanah Parker's efforts, the tribes received their first "grass" payments for grazing rights on Comanche, Kiowa and Apache lands. It is during this period that the bonds between Quanah Parker and the Burnett family grew strong.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Burnett ran 10,000 cattle until the end of the lease in 1902. The cattle baron had a strong feeling for Native American rights, and his respect for them was genuine. Where other cattle kings fought natives and the harsh land to build empires, Burnett learned Comanche ways, passing both the love of the land and his friendship with the natives to his family. As a sign of their regard for Burnett, the Comanches gave him a name in their own language: "Mas-sa-suta," meaning "Big Boss". Quanah Parker earned the respect of US governmental leaders as he adapted to the white man's life and became a prosperous rancher in Oklahoma. His spacious, two-story Star House had a bedroom for each of his seven wives and their children. He had his own private quarters, which were rather plain. Beside his bed were photographs of his mother Cynthia Ann Parker and younger sister Topʉsana. Quanah Parker extended hospitality to many influential people, both Native American and European American. Among the latter were the Texas surveyor W. D. Twichell and the cattleman Charles Goodnight.


title: Quanah Parker

text: During the next 27 years Quanah Parker and the Burnetts shared many experiences. Burnett helped by contributing money for the construction of Star House, Quanah Parker's large frame home. Burnett asked for (and received) Quanah Parker's participation in a parade with a large group of warriors at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show and other public events. The "Parade" lance depicted in the exhibit was usually carried by Quanah Parker at such public gatherings. Burnett assisted Quanah Parker in buying the granite headstones used to mark the graves of his mother and sister. After years of searching, Quanah Parker had their remains moved from Texas and reinterred in 1910 in Oklahoma on the Comanche reservation at Fort Sill.


title: Quanah Parker

text: According to his daughter "Wanada" Page Parker, her father helped celebrate President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inauguration by appearing in the parade. In April 1905, Roosevelt visited Quanah Parker at the Star House. President Roosevelt and Quanah Parker went wolf hunting together with Burnett near Frederick, Oklahoma. During the occasion, the two discussed serious business. Quanah Parker wanted the tribe to retain ownership of that the government planned to sell off to homesteaders, an argument he eventually lost. Quanah Parker asked for help combating unemployment among his people and later received a letter from the President stating his own concern about the issue. The wolf hunt was believed to be one of the reasons that Roosevelt created the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker took two wives in 1872 according to Baldwin Parker, one of Quanah Parker's sons. His first wife was "Ta-ho-yea" (or "Tohayea"), the daughter of Mescalero Apache chief Old Wolf. He had wed her in Mescalero by visiting his Apache allies since the 1860s and had got her for five mules. After a year of marriage and a visit of Mescalero Apache in the Quohada camps, "Ta-ho-yea" asked to return home, citing as her reason her inability to learn the Comanche language. Quanah Parker sent her back to her people. Quanah Parker's other wife in 1872 was "Wec-Keah" or "Weakeah", daughter of Penateka Comanche subchief Yellow Bear (sometimes "Old Bear"). Although first espoused to another warrior, she and Quanah Parker eloped, and took several other warriors with them. Yellow Bear pursued the band and eventually Quanah Parker made peace with him. The two bands united, forming the largest force of Comanche Indians.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Over the years, Quanah Parker married six more wives: Chony, Mah-Chetta-Wookey, Ah-Uh-Wuth-Takum, Coby, Toe-Pay, and Tonarcy. A photograph, , by William B. Ellis of Quanah Parker and two of his wives identified them as "Topay" and "Chonie". Quanah Parker had eight wives and twenty-five children (some of whom were adopted).


title: Quanah Parker

text: After moving to the reservation, Quanah Parker got in touch with his white relatives from his mother's family. He stayed for a few weeks with them, where he studied English and Western culture, and learned white farming techniques.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker is credited as one of the first important leaders of the Native American Church movement. Quanah Parker adopted the peyote religion after having been gored in southern Texas by a bull. Parker was visiting his uncle, John Parker, in Texas where he was attacked, giving him severe wounds. To fight an onset of blood burning fever, a Mexican curandera was summoned and she prepared a strong peyote tea from fresh peyote to heal him. Thereafter, Quanah Parker became involved with peyote, which contains hordenine, mescaline or phenylethylamine alkaloids, and tyramine which act as natural antibiotics when taken in a combined form. Clinical studies indicate that peyocactin, a water-soluble crystalline substance separated from an ethanol extract of the plant, proved an effective antibiotic against 18 strains of penicillin-resistant "Staphylococcus aureus", several other bacteria, and a fungus.


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker taught that the sacred peyote medicine was the sacrament given to the Indian peoples and was to be used with water when taking communion in a traditional Native American Church medicine ceremony. Quanah Parker was a proponent of the "half-moon" style of the peyote ceremony. The "cross" ceremony later evolved in Oklahoma because of Caddo influences introduced by John Wilson, a Caddo-Delaware religious leader who traveled extensively around the same time as Parker during the early days of the Native American Church movement.


title: Quanah Parker

text: The White Man goes into his church house and talks "about" Jesus, but the Indian goes into his tipi and talks "to" Jesus.


title: Quanah Parker

text: The modern reservation era in Native American history began with the adoption of the Native American Church and Christianity by nearly every Native American tribe and culture within the United States and Canada as a result of Quanah Parker and Wilson's efforts. The peyote religion and the Native American Church were never the traditional religious practice of North American Indian cultures. This religion developed in the nineteenth century, inspired by events of the time being east and west of the Mississippi River, Quanah Parker's leadership, and influences from Native Americans of Mexico and other southern tribes. They had used peyote in spiritual practices since ancient times. He advocated only using mind-altering substances for ritual purposes.


title: Quanah Parker

text: At the age of 66, Quanah Parker died on February 23, 1911, at Star House. In 1911, Quanah Parker's body was interred at Post Oak Mission Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma. In 1957, his remains were moved to Fort Sill Post Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, along with his mother Cynthia Ann Parker and sister Topsannah ("Prairie Flower"). The inscription on his tombstone reads:


title: Quanah Parker

text: "Not only did Quanah pass within the span of a single lifetime from a Stone Age warrior to a statesman in the age of the Industrial Revolution, but he never lost a battle to the white man and he also accepted the challenge and responsibility of leading the whole Comanche tribe on the difficult road toward their new existence."


title: Quanah Parker

text: Although praised by many in his tribe as a preserver of their culture, Quanah Parker also had Comanche critics. Some claimed that he "sold out to the white man" by adapting and becoming a rancher. He dressed and lived in what some viewed as a more European-American than Comanche style. Critic Paul Chaat Smith called "Quanah Parker: sellout or patriot?" the "basic Comanche political question".


title: Quanah Parker

text: Quanah Parker did adopt some European-American ways, but he always wore his hair long and in braids. He also refused to follow U.S. marriage laws and had up to eight wives at one time.


title: Quanah Parker

text: The Quanah Parker Society, based in Cache, Oklahoma, holds an annual family reunion and powwow. Events usually include a pilgrimage to sacred sites in Quanah, Texas; tour of his "Star Home" in Cache; dinner; memorial service at Fort Sill Post Cemetery; gourd dance, pow-wow, and worship services. This event is open to the public.


title: Quanah Parker

text: May the Great Spirit smile on your little town, May the rain fall in season, and in the warmth of the sunshine after the rain, May the earth yield bountifully, May peace and contentment be with you and your children forever.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: The Vampire Diaries is a young adult vampire fiction series of novels created by American author L. J. Smith. The story centers on Elena Gilbert, a young high school girl who finds her heart eventually torn between two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: The series was originally published in 1991-1992 and it revolves around Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert as the two main protagonists. The first three novels in the original series ("The Awakening, The Struggle", and "The Fury") all feature Stefan and Elena as the narrators of the series, while the last book in the original series, "Dark Reunion", is from Bonnie McCullough's viewpoint.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: After taking a long hiatus from writing, Smith published the first installment of "The Return" trilogy, "Nightfall", on February 10, 2009. "Shadow Souls", the second book of "The Return" trilogy, was released on March 16, 2010. The third and final book of "The Return" trilogy, "Midnight", was released on March 15, 2011.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: The trilogy after "The Return" trilogy, "The Hunters", was written by a ghostwriter. In fact, Smith signed a "work for hire" contract back when she had written the original "Vampire Diaries" novel trilogy, which means Alloy owns the copyrights to the series. Smith had originally intended to call the books in "The Hunters" trilogy "Phantom", "Evensong" and "Eternity", but the third book was called "Destiny Rising" by the ghostwriter. "Phantom" was released on October 25, 2011, "Moonsong" on March 13, 2012, and "Destiny Rising" on October 23, 2012.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Salvation" trilogy was written by ghostwriter Aubrey Clark. The first installment, "Unseen", was released on May 2, 2013, the second book, "Unspoken", on November 7, 2013, and the third and final book, "Unmasked", on May 8, 2014. The first two books of "The Salvation" trilogy were first released on Amazon.com as a paperback and ebook while "Unmasked" was available for pre-order purchase in five formats as of March 11, 2014 at Amazon.com.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: On January 15, 2014, Smith announced that she would be continuing to write her version of "The Vampire Diaries" before she was fired by Alloy. Smith would continue to write her books on Amazon Kindle as fan fiction and are not part of the official series. The "Evensong" arc would pick up where "The Return: Midnight" had left off and it takes place in an alternate world from the official series that follows "Midnight". The three titles in the "Evensong" trilogy include "Paradise Lost", "The War of Roses" and "Into the Wood". While the first two titles were released in 2014, "Into the Wood" has not yet been released as of June 2021. However L. J. Smith has revealed that the novel will be released via Kindle Worlds.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Awakening" () is the first novel in the Vampire Diaries series and introduces the main cast of characters Elena, Stefan, Matt, Bonnie, Caroline and Meredith (who is absent from the TV series). The plot of the novel revolves around the romance between Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert and the groups attempts to understand the brutal attacks that have taken place in Fell's Church. Stefan Salvatore believes that he was committing the atrocities however it is later revealed that it was his brother Damon Salvatore. This book also introduces the background of the Salvatore brothers which introduces the characters Katherine and Klaus.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Struggle" () picks up where "The Awakening" left off while introducing new characters like Alaric Saltzman. After the murder of their past history teacher Elena attempts to clear Stefan's innocence after he is accused of committing the crime and Damon looks into Alaric Saltzman's role in all of this. It is later revealed that the town knows about vampires and hired Alaric to try to kill Stefan and Damon; however, Alaric later joins Damon and Stefan and ends up dating Meredith Sulez. A powerful being has returned to Fells Church and everything is out of control despite Stefan's belief in Damon as the perpetrator no one knows its identity. Controlling the wind, the evil power chases Elena off Wickery Bridge to her death.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Fury" () reveals that the Salvatore's former lover Katherine von Swartzchild was the evil force in Fell's Church and that she ran Elena off the bridge where Elena turned into a vampire. The Fury introduces Katherine as a villain with the plot revolving around a newly turned Elena trying to cope with the stresses of becoming a vampire. Stefan and Damon work together to try to stop Katherine, who has been possessing animals and killing people all around Fell's Church. Discovering Katherine's secret lair beneath the graveyard, Stefan, Damon and Elena fight her resulting in both Elena and Katherine's deaths.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "Dark Reunion" (; "The Reunion" in the UK and Australia version) is the final novel in the original wave of Vampire Diaries books and features the heavily foreshadowed Klaus as the main villain. After the death of Elena, Damon and Stefan have left Fell's Church only to be brought back by Bonnie after she begins to have psychic dreams about Klaus torturing Elena. Klaus has captured Caroline and has been manipulating Tyler Smallwood into performing his dirty work. After the deaths of two friends Stefan goes out to kill Klaus only to realize that he is one of the "old ones" meaning he can't be killed. Damon returns to help battle the vampire only to be continually defeated. Just as Klaus is gloating over his victories hundreds of dead civil war soldiers rise from the grave led by Elena to drag Klaus to the underworld. Elena is resurrected and with seemingly every enemy vanquished, the cast leaves successful in their conquests.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: Written over a decade later "The Return: Nightfall" () picks up where the last novel left off with Elena now in the care of Stefan. Damon has become possessed by the evil fox-demon Shinichi and his twin sister Misao who have been invading the town using mystical and evil Malach. Elena struggles to adjust to her human form after spending so much time in the spi and everything is under control changes back to her human self but simultaneously loses her angel powers. Stefan is captured by the possessed Damon who later lures Elena and Matt in a brutal trap. After saving Damon from the horrible Malach that has taken over his body the duo take on Shinichi and Misao who are planning and killing Bonnie and Meredith. After saving her friends Elena embarks on a journey with Matt and Damon to free Stefan from the brutal Dark Dimension.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Return: Shadow Souls" () takes place after the events of "Nightfall" and follows Damon, Elena and Matt as they attempt to travel into the Dark Dimension. Bonnie and Meredith fight against Shinichi and Misao who have been corrupting the citizens of Fell's Church. When Damon and Elena get intimate on the road Matt abandons them and returns to Fell's Church where he instructs Bonnie and Meredith to meet up with Damon and Elena. When they arrive in the brutal Dark Dimension Damon saves a woman named Ulma and she helps them find the first half of a Fox Key that is needed to rescue Stefan. Damon, Bonnie, Elena and Meredith attend a party hosted by a woman named Bloddeuwedd who transforms into a huge owl every night. When Elena steals the last half of the fox key from the owl she attempts to kill them but is unsuccessful, eventually dying by Elena's newfound powers. Using the key to free Stefan, Elena uses her powers to help transport them back to earth, where Shinichi is waiting. After shooting the hologram of Shinichi with blessed bullets, Elena attempts to coax Stefan back to health and Damon is transformed into a human after a terrible coincidence.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Return: Midnight" () begins after Damon has become a human and starts with him tricking Bonnie into giving him Misao's powerful Star-ball that can lead him back into the Dark Dimension. After Bonnie tries to thwart Damon they are both transported into the Dark Dimension where Damon works to become a vampire again. Meredith reveals herself as a Hunter-Slayer a skill that she inherited after Klaus attacked her family and turned her brother Cristian into a vampire. Shinichi and Misao attack the Salvatore Boarding House to try to retrieve Misao's star-ball however they are unsuccessful and Misao eventually dies after her star-ball is destroyed. Meredith realizes that Inari an old friend of theirs is secretly behind the attacks and is one of the oldest and most powerful beings in the universe. Matt, Meredith and Mrs. Flowers the owner of the Salvatore boarding house attempt to stop her while Damon who has newly returned to his vampire status joins up with Stefan, Bonnie and Elena to find the Seven Kitsune Treasures. After finding the Seven Kitsune Treasures Damon and Stefan kill Shinichi who is trying to stop them however a magic tree stakes Damon and he dies. After Elena destroys the Seven Treasures she goes to find the mystical Guardians who have the power to bring people back from the dead. She asks for her old life back in return for the remaining Kitsune Treasure however they are unable to bring Damon back to life. Elena returns to her old life only to find out that Inari was killed when the treasure was destroyed and that everything has returned to normal before Klaus, Katherine and Shinichi invaded Fell's Church.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Hunters: Phantom" is the starting novel of a new arc, this time written by a ghostwriter. It begins with Meredith Sulez's fiancé-to-be Alaric Saltzman returning from Japan with a fellow researcher Celia Conner. Since the Guardians changed the realities of Fells Church (so that all the evil that Klaus, Katherine, and the kitsune twins committed never happened), Elena is no longer dead and she is able to see her Aunt Judith and her sister Margaret again. Alaric and Celia arrive by train just after her name is mysteriously spelled out in blood. Other names begin to appear first Meredith, then Damon, Bonnie, Elena and Matt. Damon manages to escape from the Dark Dimension after it is revealed that the embers of the star-ball Elena destroyed revived him after his death in The Return: Midnight. Stefan begins to suspect Caleb Smallwood (Tyler Smallwood's cousin) of committing the crimes after he finds out that he still remembers the original timeline with Klaus and Katherine. Stefan tries to kill Caleb but is unsuccessful because Elena intervenes. Stefan and Meredith interrogate Caleb only to realize that he was not causing the accidents around Fell's Church. Simultaneously the bodies of Matt, Bonnie, and Elena have all been taken into the Dark Dimension where Damon is trying to hunt the villain. Damon reveals that the monster is an Original Phantom and that it feeds on your emotions the same way a vampire feeds on blood. After the Phantom is summoned to Fells Church, Alaric tries to use old magic to cast the phantom out, however the Phantom is able to play on peoples minds and forces Stefan and Damon to battle. They eventually cast the Phantom out after revealing all of their jealousies and burning down the garage in the process. They prepare to attend Dalcrest college in the coming fall.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: In "The Hunters: Moonsong" (written by a ghostwriter) Elena, Stefan, Matt, Bonnie and Meredith are all attending Dalcrest college just a few hours away from Fell's Church. They all settle into new rituals with Bonnie befriending a boy named Zander and Meredith meeting a fellow Vampire-Hunter named Samantha. Matt Honeycutt is invited to join the secret group called The Vitale Society where he is met by dozens of recruits including his new friend Chloe and even more masked Vitales led by the mysterious Ethan Crane. Elena chooses to part ways with both Damon and Stefan after they begin to battle over her again leading the two brothers to bond over their shared misery. Damon is living across town in a fancy apartment and is much less considerate of Elena's wish to remain separate. Elena and Damon are constantly together making Stefan become even more jealous and cold. When people start disappearing from campus Meredith and Samantha try to uncover who is behind it only to have Matt's roommate Christopher and Meredith's friend Samantha killed. Meredith and Elena suspect Zander is the killer, making Bonnie so upset that she moves out of their dorm. Zander reveals himself as a werewolf making Bonnie believe that he is the killer, however a few hundred feet away Ethan Crane is beginning a ritual with the fellow Vitales. The Vitale Society is actually a group of vampires, and the new recruits (including Matt) are all to be turned into a vampire army. Stefan arrives to protect Matt but is quickly subdued by Ethan and his vampires. Ethan Crane reveals that he is intent on bringing back the powerful Original vampire Klaus and that he wants to gift him the massive army that he has assembled. Damon, Meredith and Elena arrive to stop the Vitales and kill about a dozen. The rest escape. Ethan Crane threatens to kill Elena but is quickly impaled with Meredith's fighting stave. Bonnie places spells sealing up the tunnels from the outside so that no one finds the dead vampires until they have been disposed of, however, Ethan actually survived his wounds and now has all of the ingredients he needs to resurrect Klaus.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: "The Hunters: Destiny Rising" (written by a ghostwriter): After the events of "The Hunters: Moonsong" Stefan, Elena, Meredith and Zanders wolf pack are rallying to try to find Ethan after they discover his body is missing from the Vitale Vampire chamber. Alaric Saltzman comes into town and helps Meredith rig vervain bombs to try to lure Ethan out of the tombs; however, Ethan has already begun the ceremony deep in the woods. Stefan and the wolf pack battle the Vitale Vampires; however, Ethan successfully pours Stefan and Damon's blood into a huge bonfire raising Klaus. Klaus instantly kills Ethan and wounds Zander telling Elena to watch her back before vanishing into the woods. Bonnie has a vision of Klaus bringing back his old allies including Katherine and Meredith's brother Cristian. Alaric, Meredith and Bonnie hunt for a White Oak tree that can be used to kill Klaus but Tyler and Caroline were compelled by Klaus to burn it down. Elena learns that she is an "Earthly Guardian" and that she cannot be killed by supernatural means. She is given lessons in mastering her powers by another Earthly Guardian named Andres - who works with her history professor, James - who helps her understand her skills. Damon is hunting humans again causing Stefan and Elena to hide his actions from the rest of the group who already dislike the more sarcastic Salvatore brother. Stefan and the rest of the group go hunting for Klaus only to discover that he has created an army including the powerful Katherine. They battle resulting in the death of the werewolf Chad and Klaus realizes that he has to find another way to kill Elena. Elena and Andres are ambushed by Klaus on an elevator and Andres is kidnapped after Damon saves Elena from Klaus. Damon an Katherine begin to work together feeding on humans and having fun but she eventually warns Damon about Klaus' plan and he leaves to join Stefan and their army of werewolves. Elena, as an Earthly Guardian, is given the task of killing Damon Salvatore which she rejects as ridiculous choosing instead to go after Klaus. Cristian tries to kill Meredith leading her to realize that she must kill her brother if the time arises. Klaus and his army ( except Katherine) battle against Stefan, Damon, Meredith and an army of werewolves. Meredith runs Cristian through with a stake killing him instantly while Damon and Stefan battle against the countless other vampires Klaus has brought with him. Klaus captures Elena and brings her into the tunnels beneath the school where he stabs her and begins to drink her blood. Stefan and Damon find Elena only to realize that Klaus has died realizing that Elena's blood, as an Earthly Guardian, has the ability to kill the unkillable Original vampires. With all of their threats defeated, Meredith and Alaric get engaged while Bonnie continues to date the Original Werewolf Zander. Elena reads her mother's journal and discovers she and Katherine are half-sisters. Elena chooses to be with Stefan after she explains to the Guardians that Damon will no longer be a problem anymore. Damon and Katherine choose to leave the continent presumably going to Asia which Damon has specified that he enjoyed.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: On February 6, 2009, "Variety" announced that The CW Television Network greenlit the pilot for a television series entitled "The Vampire Diaries" with Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec set as the writers and executive producers and starring Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder. On May 19, 2009, the pilot was officially ordered to series for the 2009-2010 season. The series ran until March 10, 2017, and ended up with two spinoff shows, "The Originals" and "Legacies". "The Originals" started half way through the run of "The Vampire Diaries", with "Legacies" airing after the series finale of both shows. Both spinoffs were created and produced by Plec.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: The "Stefan's Diaries" are six novels based on the TV series, attributed to Lisa Jane Smith but actually ghostwritten. They tell Stefan and Damon's past since Katherine's arrival. As they were written during the series broadcast, some things differ, such as the story of the original Vampires.


title: The Vampire Diaries (novel series)

text: The series was adapted into a point-and-click adventure horror video game, released in 1996 by HeR Interactive. It tells the story of teenager Elena Gilbert, who, while visiting an art gallery, witnesses her little sister being a victim of a bat-like animal. Suspicions arise among the citizens of Fells Church that a vampire may be walking among them. After the attack, it is revealed to Elana that Stefan Salvatore, the doctor's assistant working at the hospital where Elana's sister is staying, is actually a vampire that died in a duel with his brother, Damon "Smith" Salvatore in the 1500's. Damon also happens to be a student biology teacher at Elana's high school. Stefan suggests to Elana that the other vampire attacking Fell's Church, whoever the are, may be defeated by a Ring of Power, and the rest of the game is spent preparing for the ritual and creation of the Ring of Power. Along the way Elana can interact with several characters, including her friend Bonnie McCullough and Bonnie's boss, who happens to own a spiritual dagger that is key to defeating the villain. After creating the ring of power, in a twist reveal, Elana learns that the vampire that attacked her sister is Makkhail Romanoff, owner of the Art Gallery and manipulative lover of Caroline Forbes, Elana's friend from kindergarten turned Mean Girl. After the defeat of Makkhail, Elana allows Stefan to bite her so they can be together forever. The game was made at the peak of popularity for interactive movie games and features live-action actors and footage.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of International Territorial Level for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. The region consists of the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire. The region has seven cities; Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Lichfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Worcester.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The West Midlands region is geographically diverse, from the urban central areas of the West Midlands conurbation to the rural counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire which border Wales. The region is landlocked. However, the longest river in the UK, the River Severn, traverses the region southeastwards, flowing through the county towns of Shrewsbury and Worcester, and the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Staffordshire is home to the industrialised Potteries conurbation, including the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the Staffordshire Moorlands area, which borders the southeastern Peak District National Park near Leek. The region also encompasses five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Wye Valley, Shropshire Hills, Cannock Chase, Malvern Hills, and parts of the Cotswolds. Warwickshire is home to the towns of Stratford upon Avon, birthplace of writer William Shakespeare, Rugby, the birthplace of Rugby football and Nuneaton, birthplace to author George Eliot.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The official region contains the ceremonial counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: There is some confusion in the use of the term "West Midlands", as the name is also used for the much smaller West Midlands county and conurbation which is in the central belt of the Midlands and on the eastern side of the West Midlands Region. It is also still used by various organisations within that area, such as West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The highest point in the region is Black Mountain, at 703 metres (2,307 ft) in west Herefordshire on the border with Powys, Wales.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The region contains five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), including the Shropshire Hills, Malvern Hills and Cannock Chase, and parts of the Wye Valley and Cotswolds. The Peak District national park also stretches into the northern corner of Staffordshire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The West Midlands region contains several urban areas with populations of 100,000 or more in 2021, which include:


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The RAF Fauld explosion on 27 November 1944 in east Staffordshire produced a 100-foot deep crater, and is the UK's largest explosion, being caused by around 4,000 tonnes of high explosive, and may be the world's largest non-nuclear explosion.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Birmingham was the third most bombed city in the UK after London and Liverpool; Spitfires were built in Castle Bromwich, Lancasters at Austin's works in Longbridge at Cofton Hackett, and the Birmingham Small Arms Company at Small Heath produced the M1919 Browning machine gun. Boulton Paul Aircraft had their main aircraft factory in the north of Wolverhampton. RAF Defford, in the south of Worcestershire between Pershore and Croome Park, was where many important airborne radars were developed, such as H2S (radar) and anti-submarine radars.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Thomas Wedgwood, son of Josiah Wedgwood, discovered the first photo-sensitive (light-sensitive) chemicals – silver nitrate and silver chloride in the 1790s.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Sir Norman Lockyer of Rugby discovered helium in 1868, for which he used electromagnetic spectroscopy.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Edward Weston of Oswestry, who emigrated to the US, built the first accurate voltmeter in the late 1880s, and the Weston cell in 1893.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Francis W. Aston of Harborne, educated at the University of Birmingham, developed mass spectrometry in 1919, which helped him to identify the first isotopes, receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1922.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Dennis Gabor invented holography at British Thomson-Houston in Rugby in 1947, receiving the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: James Glaisher in 1862 took a record balloon flight with Henry Tracey Coxwell for the BAAS near Wolverhampton. They reached the composition of the Earth's atmosphere until then was not understood; the altitude records for the UK have not been exceeded since; Project Excelsior in the US in 1960 would later reach .


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Philip Lawley of Burton upon Trent was first person to realise that chemical damage to DNA caused cancer (at the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London) in the early 1960s.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Francis Galton (d. 1911) of the Darwin–Wedgwood family's Birmingham branch was an early eugenicist rooted in improving animal breeding stock and examining heredity. He invented terms eugenics and "nature versus nurture". His limited calls for human eugenics were widened by the German Society for Racial Hygiene in 1905 founded by Alfred Ploetz, which coupled with the racial superiority fallacies of Aryanism reached its nadir in genocidal anti-semitism. Moral teachings and inherent repulsions towards human eugenics were overcome by a minority of those in power espousing racial equality; European media and leaders lamented loss of Empire, advocated ultranationalism and prized military physical advantage; Galton saw human eugenics as part of all means to "do better".


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Much of the Industrial revolution in the United Kingdom began in Birmingham and the Black Country area of West Midlands. The Industrial Revolution is thought to have begun when Abraham Darby substituted coke in the place of charcoal to smelt iron, at his Old Furnace. The Black Country may be regarded as the world's first industrial landscape, while nearby Ironbridge Gorge claims to be the Birthplace of Industry. The world's first cast iron bridge in 1779 spans the Gorge. The first self-propelled locomotive to run on rails in 1803 at Coalbrookdale, was built by Richard Trevithick. The first iron rails for horse-drawn transport, were made at Coalbrookdale in 1768 by Richard Reynolds at Ketley Ironworks. Iron rails only became widely successful in 1820 when made out of wrought iron at Bedlington Ironworks in north-east England.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Birmingham's industrial development was triggered by discussions at the Lunar Society of Birmingham at Soho House, Boulton's house, and products were carried along the BCN Main Line canal. Soho Manufactory was the first man-made-powered factory in world. Chance Brothers of Smethwick built the glass for The Crystal Palace in 1851. Smethwick Engine, now at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, is the oldest working steam engine, made in 1779, and is the oldest working engine in the world. Smethwick was a main centre for making lighthouse lanterns.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Valor Fires in Erdington developed the first radiant gas fire in 1967, a balanced flue fire in 1973, and a natural flame gas fire in 1978. The Erdington site, owned by Iceland's BDR Thermea, closed in May 2012. The company also built gas cookers; since 2011 the company has been part of Glen Dimplex, who have a site at Cooper's Bank, south of Gornalwood.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Ditherington Flax Mill in Shrewsbury was the first iron-framed building in the world in 1797. Thomas Bolton & Sons of Froghall, Staffordshire, made the world's first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1857, having supplied a submarine cable across the English Channel in 1850. GEC Telecommunications was headquartered at the GEC Telephone and Radio Works in Coventry, it has now become the New Century Park, off the A428 north of Stoke Aldermoor in eastern Coventry. On 10 July 1890, a trunk circuit telephone line was opened between London and Birmingham by the National Telephone Company; for the first time this allowed phone calls between the London and the north. The world's first coaxial cable was laid between London and Birmingham in 1936 to give 40 channels for telephone traffic. and brought into use in 1938, later extended to Manchester in 1940.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Alexander Parkes invented the first man-made plastic (thermoplastic) in Birmingham in 1856. Arthur Leslie Large of Birmingham is credited with inventing the kettle in 1922. Princess Square, Wolverhampton, was the site of Britain's first traffic lights in 1927. Infrared cameras were developed at the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern (with EMI Electronics) in 1967. The world's first Maglev train operated at Birmingham Airport in 1983. The tallest freestanding structure in the region was the chimney of Ironbridge power station at 673 ft. John Baskerville of Birmingham, a former stone carver, largely invented fonts, or typefaces, for printing.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Much of the UK's car industry would be centred in Coventry and Birmingham; most of this has now gone. Midland Motor Cylinder (part of Birmid Industries) of Smethwick was the largest producer of automobile cylinder blocks in Europe. Fort Dunlop was Europe's largest tyre plant. Metro-Cammell in Birmingham made most of the 1970s and 1980s London Underground trains. MG Rover (a company of Rover) closed in 2005 (from 1885), The Ryton plant, which made the Peugeot 206, closed at the end of 2006, with production moving to Trnava in Slovakia, and some to a plant at Kolín in the Czech Republic. Alfred Herbert of Coventry was the largest machine-tool manufacturer in the UK for many decades; it was brought down in the 1970s by advancing technology overseas, and complacent strategic decisions of the management, finally closing in 1982; many Midlands manufacturing companies followed similar fates in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Henry Wiggin & Co of Hereford developed the metal alloys necessary for other Midlands' (and beyond) automotive and aerospace companies – Inconel, Incoloy and Nimonic. It was the lack of vanadium for high-melting point alloys, caused by Royal Navy action, that prevented German Me 262 engines being serviceable; had German Second World War engineers had a greater supply of vanadium and molybdenum, the engine life (around 12 hours maximum, from entering service in April 1944 to the end of the war) of their jet engine would have increased much more, which would have been significant to the war's outcome. Bristol Siddeley developed the rocket engines for Black Arrow at Ansty; in fact all of R-R's rocket engines were developed and built there at R-R's Industrial and Marine Gas Turbine Division; Britain's smaller rocket engines for missiles were built by Bristol Aerojet in what is now North Somerset. High Duty Alloys at Redditch constructed (forged) the compressor and turbine blades for Whittle's first engines, and many of the early jet engines; it made Concorde's airframe from the Hiduminium R.R.58 aluminium alloy.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Maxaret, the world's first ABS braking system, was invented in Coventry by Dunlop in the early 1950s for aircraft; John Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish vet who had first produced the first pneumatic tyres in 1889. Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, grandson of Matthew Boulton, and born in the area, invented the aileron, an important flight control surface in 1868, decades before the first actual flight. Triumph Engineering was a famous motorbike firm in Meriden. About a quarter of all British WWI planes were built in Coventry. The Jensen Interceptor FF was the first production four-wheel-drive car in the world, designed by Major Tony Rolt, and built at their factory in West Bromwich.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Cadbury launched "Dairy Milk" in 1905, "Bournville" in 1906, "Fruit & Nut" in 1928, "Whole Nut" in 1930, "Cadbury Roses" in 1938, and the "Cadbury Creme Egg" in 1971. George and Richard Cadbury built their factory in 1879 and Bournville in 1893, named after the Bourn brook. Iceland (supermarket) opened its first store in Oswestry in 1970 – heralding the onset of frozen food in the UK. Alfred Bird invented egg-free custard in 1837 in Birmingham – accidentally given to guests at his home, being created as his wife had an allergy to eggs; he then invented baking powder in 1843 as his wife also had an allergy to yeast.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: J. R. R. Tolkien grew up in Birmingham, Kings Heath, then part of Worcestershire, and was inspired by Moseley Bog and Sarehole, and perhaps by the Perrott's Folly. Philip Larkin came from Coventry. Rowland Hill (stamps) was from Kidderminster. The writer George Eliot came from Nuneaton. Anthony E. Pratt from Birmingham invented Cluedo.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Frederick Gibberd of Coventry designed Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Edward Cave from Rugby made Britain's first magazine in 1731 – The Gentleman's Magazine. Philip Astley from Newcastle under Lyme invented the modern day circus in 1768 – Astley's Amphitheatre.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The Castlemorton Common Festival in May 1992 near Malvern, led to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The Nowka Bais is a Bengali boat racing festival which takes place annually in Birmingham. It is a cultural event in the West Midlands, United Kingdom attracting not only the Bangladeshi diaspora but a variety of cultures. It is also the largest kind of boat race in the United Kingdom.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The official representative body of the region is the West Midlands Leaders Board which has limited administrative functions such as regional planning and economic development. The board is not an elected body, but is made up of members appointed from local councils across the region and is known as a quango. It is based on "Edward Street" in Birmingham, near the National Indoor Arena. From March 2010, the funding decisions at regional level were taken over by Advantage West Midlands, the Regional Development Agency.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The West Midlands is the second most ethnically diverse region of the UK (London being the most diverse). This is in large part due to the West Midlands conurbation, which is highly diverse. The ethnic makeup of the West Midlands as a whole as measured by the 2011 census was as follows:


title: West Midlands (region)

text: For top-tier authorities in the West Midlands, Stoke-on-Trent has the highest teenage pregnancy rate. For council districts, Nuneaton and Bedworth in Warwickshire has the highest rate closely followed by Tamworth. For top-tier authorities, Shropshire has the lowest rate, and for council districts Malvern Hills has the lowest rate.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The region, from studies of multiple deprivation, shows similarities with Yorkshire and the Humber, and is more deprived than the neighbouring East Midlands. From the Indices of deprivation 2007, it can be seen that, in common with Northern England, the region has more Lower Area Super Output Areas in the 20% most deprived districts than in the 20% least deprived districts. The region's most deprived council districts, in descending order, are Birmingham (10th highest in England), Sandwell (14th), Stoke-on-Trent (16th), Wolverhampton (28th), Walsall (45th), Coventry (61st), and Dudley (100th).


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The least deprived districts in 2007 (before Shropshire became a unitary authority in 2009) were Bromsgrove, South Staffordshire, Warwick, Wychavon, and Lichfield. At county level, the least deprived areas, in descending order, were Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Solihull, Staffordshire, and Shropshire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: In March 2011 the region had the second highest overall unemployment claimant count in England at 4.7%, second to North East England. The highest in the region was Wolverhampton at 7.7%, the joint second highest (with Manchester) unemployment rate in England. Next is Sandwell with 7.1%, Birmingham with 7.0%, and Walsall with 6.4%. The lowest rate in the region is the district of Stratford-on-Avon, with 1.6% – one of the lowest unemployment rates in England.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: In the 1992 general election, Nuneaton was taken by Labour with a 7% swing, which was one of the largest swings of the night; in the 2015 election, the Nuneaton result would largely seal the eventual outcome of the election. In the 2010 general election, North Warwickshire (Dan Byles) had the smallest Conservative majority, with 54; Stoke-on-Trent Central had the smallest number of winning votes, with 12,220.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: In the 2015 general election, the Conservatives gained the largest share of the region by popular vote and took control of the number of seats, with 42% of the region's electorate voting Conservative, 33% Labour, 16% UKIP, 6% Liberal Democrat and 3% Green. The Conservatives gained 2 seats with virtually no swing from Labour to Conservative.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: In the 2017 general election, South Staffordshire (Gavin Williamson) had the second-highest Conservative vote proportion in the UK – 69.8%. David Firth, at the University of Warwick, invented the BBC election exit poll. 6 ft 9 Daniel Kawczynski, a Shropshire MP, is the tallest MP ever.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Although having a slightly smaller percentage of the vote than the neighbouring East Midlands, the geographic area of the West Midlands is more Conservative, due to Labour's vote now consigned to the urban areas of Birmingham, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent. The number of seats is more favoured towards Labour than the geographic spread, with 35 Conservative seats and 24 Labour. All of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire is now Conservative.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The Green Party of England and Wales was formed at the Bridge Inn in Napton-on-the-Hill, Warwickshire, in February 1973, originating from an article by Paul R. Ehrlich about population growth in "Playboy" magazine. In 1975, it became the Ecology Party and then the Green Party in 1985.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), the West Midlands form a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKG", which is subdivided as follows:


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Key: †two-tier non-metropolitan county | *metropolitan county including the West Midlands Combined Authority and mayor


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The West Midlands' population accounts for almost 11% of England's overall population. 49.36% of the region's population resides in the West Midlands county, 20.17% in Staffordshire, 10.49% in Worcestershire, 9.91% in Warwickshire, 8.56% in Shropshire, and 3.37% in Herefordshire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Business Link West Midlands was based on the Quinton Business Park in Quinton, next to Highways England. NHS West Midlands, the strategic health authority was in Edgbaston. The West Midlands Ambulance Service is in Brierley Hill, near the headquarters of West Midlands Police, where the Child Support Agency (CSA) was headquartered. The region's Manufacturing Advisory Service was on Wolverhampton Science Park, north of the city centre; this function is now represented by Made in the Midlands, north of Wolverhampton.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The DIT West Midlands for the region is based at the West Midlands Chambers of Commerce on "Harborne Road", south of NHS West Midlands west of Five Ways. Most of the region is covered by the Midlands Air Ambulance, except Warwickshire is covered by the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance, based at Coventry Airport; both are charity-funded. Sir Anthony Bamford of Staffordshire is the richest British industrialist, at around £3.15bn in 2014; Sir James Dyson is second (£3bn).


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Bulmers Cider in Hereford is the world's largest cider factory, and has the world's largest vat (for Strongbow), built in 1975. Painter Brothers (part of Balfour Beatty) in the north of Hereford, is the UK's largest manufacturer of electricity pylons (transmission towers), broadcasting masts, the Callender-Hamilton bridge, and rail electrification structures. Special Metals Wiggin, part of Special Metals Corporation, based at Hereford was the main producer of nickel alloys in Europe, with a large site directly north of Painter Brothers. Cargill Meats Europe (formerly Sun Valley) have a large poultry meat processing facility, processing chickens from around Herefordshire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Cadbury (Mondelēz International) make milk chocolate crumb near Marlbrook (near Leominster). Weston's Cider is in Much Marcle, who also make Stowford Press. Wye Fruit Ltd is in the north of Ledbury on the B4214 and is a large site of Amcor, and further west is Universal Beverages (UBL), owned by Heineken since 2007 where it cans cider. The site of Ledbury Preserves of RHM made Robertson's jam, mincemeat and marmalade and closed in 2008 when production moved to Cambridgeshire. Holden Aluminium Technologies are a sports car chassis manufacturer at Linton. Kingspan Insulation is based at Pembridge. BT's Madley Communications Centre, claims to be the world's largest earth station. Tyrrells Potato Crisps are at Dilwyn west of Leominster.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Rayburn Range and Aga Rangemaster Group are based in Telford; the PDSA is in St George's and Priorslee, Telford. The MoD have a significant depot at Lilleshall and Donnington. There are also high-technology industries such as Unimation, Nikon, Hitachi Maxell, Ricoh, Capgemini, Fujitsu and Electronic Data Systems. In Hadley Castle, Denso Manufacturing UK Ltd make car air-conditioning systems and GKN Wheels make car wheels. Makita Manufacturing Europe at Hortonwood, Telford is the only plant in the UK that makes power tools.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Müller Dairy Ltd is based in Market Drayton, and Palethorpes, part of Pork Farms which makes own-label sausages. At Crudgington, Dairy Crest made "Country Life" butter and Clover until February 2015, and have their Technical Centre. Anglo Beef Processors (ABP Food Group) are at Harlescott in the north of Shrewsbury. Nearby Stadco, a metal pressings company, are based in the Battlefield Industrial Estate and have a site at Hadley Castle, Telford. Uniq plc have a plant at Minsterley and make chilled desserts for Tesco.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: BT have their National Network Management Centre (Whittington House) in Whittington, Shropshire. Military helicopter training in the UK takes place at RAF Shawbury, alongside training for the RAF's air traffic controllers (ATC).


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The brewing companies such as Coors Brewers are in Burton on Trent, as well as Marmite, Marston's Brewery, GNC UK (health supplements), and Doncasters (aerospace components and steel forging, founded by Daniel Doncaster of Sheffield). Conder Structures is a structural steel company next to Marmite, and further south Johnson Controls make seats for Toyota in Branston and yes, Branston is the original home of Branston Pickle, where the original factory can still be seen on Burton Road. Spirit Pub Company is near the A5121/A38 junction, with Punch Taverns slightly further north. Marley Eternit, who make Eternit fibre cement roofing (often seen on industrial buildings) are based in the south of Branston.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Newell Rubbermaid UK (owner of Parker Pen, Berol, Paper Mate and DYMO), a large RDC of Tesco, and Zytek (motorsport) is at Fradley Park, on an old airfield. Norgren was an international pneumatic technology company on Eastern Avenue, Lichfield.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Michelin Tyres are made at Sideway in Stoke-on-Trent. Royal Doulton and Wedgwood were/are based at Burslem and Barlaston respectively. Portmeirion Pottery, which owns the Royal Worcester brand, is in Stoke. Steelite International (pottery) is based at Middleport, in west Burslem, next to the Trent and Mersey Canal. Wade Ceramics is at Etruria to the east of Wolstanton, near the HQ of the Sentinel newspaper (Harmsworth Printing). Premier Foods make Mr Kipling slices and Cherry Bakewells at Trent Vale in the south of Stoke-on-Trent.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Bet365 is situated at Festival Park in Etruria, and is Stoke-on-Trent's largest private sector employer. Dechra Pharmaceuticals makes veterinary pharmaceuticals at Talke. Churchill China is at Sandyford near Tunstall. Sumitomo Electrical Wiring Systems (Europe), which supplies wiring for the automotive industry, is at Silverdale. At Kidsgrove, Converteam make variable speed drives (VSDs); AAH Pharmaceuticals has its Enterprise and Trident divisions in Talke, in the west of Kidsgrove. Andritz UK is at Wolstanton, in the north of Newcastle.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: . Mann+Hummel UK, at Featherstone, make air and oil filters. Armitage Shanks (owned by Ideal Standard International) is to the east of Rugeley in Armitage with Handsacre; JCB Cab Systems was next to the A51 on the Riverside Industrial Estate.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The UK headquarters of GE Grid Solutions is based at Stafford as well as a factory and the UK headquarters of Bostikon Common Road, in the north of the town. Altecnic, which works with Caleffi of Italy, is to the north of Stafford in Creswell, and supply plumbing fittings.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Numark Pharmacy is at Tamworth. Bristan based in Dordon and Baddesley Ensor on the Birch Coppice Business Park south-west of Tamworth, next to a new Ocado distribution centre, is the UK's largest supplier of kitchen and bathroom taps; Volkswagen Group (VAG UK) have their main UK distribution facility there, the site of Birch Coppice Colliery before 1987; nearby Maersk have their Birmingham Intermodal Freight Terminal. Ansell UK (medical gloves, from Australia) is on Tamworth Enterprise Park, they also produce Mates condoms. Whittington Barracks (DMS Whittington) near to the west is the home of the Defence Medical Services, Defence Dental Service, and the Defence Medical Services Training Centre.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Premier Foods make Bird's Custard, Angel Delight and Marvel powdered milk in Knighton, west of Eccleshall near the Shropshire boundary. Static Systems Group (SSG) in Wombourne, south Staffordshire, make most of the nurse call systems for the NHS. Ornua Foods UK Ltd, best known for the Kerrygold brand, have a large cheese production site in Leek on Sunnyhills Road.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Volvo Trucks UK and a large data centre of IBM are in Warwick. Dennis Eagle, who make bin wagons, are headquartered on the Heathcote Ind Estate, in east Warwick towards Leamington. Godiva are the UK's leading manufacturer of fire pumps in Emscote, east Warwick.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: On the Warwick Technology Park, south of Warwick, are Phillips 66 UK who own JET UK (petrol); to the east is McKesson's European HQ (who produce the software for the NHS's 1.4 million employees' payroll – the largest payroll in the UK), and to the west is Tulip (who produce SPAM) and are owned by Danish Crown Group – Europe's largest pork producer.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The British Horse Society is in Kenilworth. At Cubbington is the UK headquarters of Joma, and has the Thwaites dumper manufacturer.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: BMW have their main European four-cylinder engine plant at Hams Hall. Subaru UK and Isuzu UK (IM Group) are at the Coleshill Manor Office Campus, west of Coleshill. TNT UK and Aldi UK is in the west of Atherstone; Aldi opened its first UK store on 17 July 1990 in Stechford, Birmingham, and now has around 700 UK stores. 3M have an abrasive products factory in the east of the town. Holland & Barrett are Europe's largest health food chain, with 1,400 stores. Triton Showers (the UK's largest shower company) are based in Nuneaton.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: South of Nuneaton, is the national distribution centre of Dairy Crest, where it also packages Cathedral City cheese. North of Coventry, Oleo International is a world leader in railway buffers based in Exhall. The London congestion charge is operated by Capita, based at Prologis Park in the west of Exhall. Rolls-Royce have a large engine overhaul plant near Ansty in Coombe Fields, which also makes their engine casings.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Aston Martin and Land Rover have their headquarters in Gaydon. Nearby to the south is MoD Kineton (former Defence Storage and Distribution Agency or DSDA Kineton, now part of Defence Equipment and Support or DE&S), home of the Army School of Ammunition and Defence Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Munitions and Search Training Regiment which teaches bomb disposal.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: GE Power Conversion UK and Morgan Sindall Construction & Infrastructure are in Rugby. Alstom have their Power and Transport division in the north of Rugby, where they service steam turbines. On the Swift Valley Ind Estate, Premier Foods have their national distribution centre. The European HQ of Gap is in the north of Rugby; Gap is the world's third-biggest fashion retailer, with 118 stores in the UK. CEMEX have the country's largest cement works, west of Rugby.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The Forensic Science Service, Linpac, Lafarge Cement UK and IMI plc are on the Birmingham Business Park in Bickenhill. The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is just north. ZF Lemförder UK's site at Bickenhill makes axle modules for Land Rover. Newey and Eyre, Britain's largest electrical wholesaler, is at Sheldon. Neopost UK is off the A452. Goodrich UK is in Shirley. TRW Conekt have a main automotive engineering research centre at The Green Business Park in Shirley Heath. The Mormons (Latter Day Saints) have their European HQ in Solihull. Amtico (flooring) is based in the south of Solihull, with a main factory in Foleshill, Coventry.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The UK's VAT Registration Service, for Value Added Tax is at HMRC in Wolverhampton. Flint Ink UK in the east of the town centre, was the largest ink supplier in the British Empire, before being bought in 1998. In Fordhouses, are HS Marston who make heat exchangers.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Turner Powertrain Systems is the world market leader for transmissions for backhoe loaders, mini excavators telescopic handlers, and site dumpers is further south, near Dunstall Hill. Tata Steel (former site of British Steel Seamless Tubes until 1995) have their Wednesfield Steelpark (the UK's biggest steelyard, built by Corus in 1999) on the Walsall boundary.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Hadley Group near the Soho Foundry is the largest cold roll forming manufacturer in the UK. Caparo Precision Tubes in Oldbury, is the UK's largest producer of electric resistance welded (ERW) steel tubes, and Wellman Group make boilers to the west. Metsec, east of Oldbury, is one of the UK's largest cold roll-forming companies. The AA have a main office in Rounds Green, west of Oldbury. BIP Chemicals (former British Cyanides) at Oldbury are the oldest polymer manufacturer in the UK. STILL UK is in Harvills Hawthorn, Golds Hill, north-west of West Bromwich and further along the A41 is 2 Sisters Food Group, Britain's largest processor of chicken. Nesbit Evans in the east of Wednesbury, are a main manufacturer of hospital beds.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The national headquarters of One Stop is in Brownhills, at Clayhanger. Poundland is in Willenhall. Wedge Group, based in Willenhall, is the largest hot dip galvanising company in the UK. Assa Abloy UK (and Yale UK, former Yale & Towne), is also in Willenhall, as the town is known for manufacture of locks. A.F. Blakemore, supplies most of the SPAR shops in the UK.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: In Redditch are Halfords, to the south in Washford, and GKN (it has the second largest turnover in the West Midlands) is in Riverside. Mettis Aerospace are in Enfield, north Redditch, and make light metal components ( former High Duty Alloys, which made most of the forged pistons for Britain's aircraft engines in WWII). Phoenix Group (non-public life assurance schemes) is in the north-east of the county near the Warwickshire boundary, at Wythall, and has a large turnover; nearby to west Metalrax, headquartered in Alvechurch, make (via subsidiaries) most of the bakeware sold in the UK.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Roger Dyson Group manufactures auto-recovery vehicles in north Droitwich. South of Bromsgrove, L.G. Harris & Co make paintbrushes. Lea & Perrins is in Worcester. Joy Mining Machinery are in the west of Worcester. Worcester, Bosch Group make 1,200 boilers a day. Mazak UK have the parent company's European manufacturing facility (for CNC machine tools) in the north of Worcester. Nearby on the Blackpole Ind Est, Froude Hofmann have their world headquarters, who make dynamometers.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Roxel UK develops solid-fuel rockets for missiles south of Kidderminster and in Hartlebury. The West Midland Safari Park is in Bewdley, west of Kidderminster. Morgan Technical Ceramics is headquartered at Lickhill in Stourport-on-Severn. Egbert H. Taylor in Elmley Lovett, near Hartlebury is a manufacturer of metal bins.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Liquid crystal displays were developed in 1972 in conjunction with the Royal Radar Establishment, where Geoffrey Dummer invented the idea of the integrated circuit in 1952. It was based in Malvern, and became the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, which developed thermal imaging and pyroelectric infrared detectors, and is now a large site owned by QinetiQ. Morgan Motor Company is in Malvern Link. Commsoft RMS is in Evesham. For many years Group 4 Security, which was the largest security company in Europe, had its headquarters in Broadway, on the edge of the Cotswolds; G4S Integrated Services now has its HQ there.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Selective schools are in low numbers as follows: Birmingham (8), Walsall (2), Wolverhampton (1), Warwickshire (6), Stoke-on-Trent (1), and Telford and Wrekin (2). The highest proportion per head therefore is Warwickshire (its population is between 550,000 and 600,000 people). The other counties and metropolitan boroughs have none, their public education systems are comprehensive in intake. The grammar and independent schools tend to produce pass-rate examination results among the top twenty ranked regionally. Many pupils compete for entrance examinations to attend such long-established Grammar Schools and most have significant parent sponsorship. In 2016 two of the top ten such schools nationally were in Warwickshire, where in the CV37 postal district prices were 34% higher than the county as a whole. The top 20 schools at A-level rarely change from year to year; slightly lower in the table pass-rate boosts and top grades regularly occur among the schools receiving industrial funding, with similar frequency to London, the North East, and the North West, particularly in schools and academies which have some of the most advanced facilities.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Around 275,000 secondary schools are in the region, the greatest number after the South East, Greater London and North West.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: At GCSE based on % of entrants' pass rates, the best performing local government area in 2010 was Solihull, closely followed by Warwickshire and Shropshire. Dudley, Herefordshire, Telford and Wrekin, Birmingham and Staffordshire (in descending order) are above the English average, at which rate, is approximately Worcestershire. The area consistently having fewest passes is Sandwell, followed by Stoke-on-Trent. Struggling pupils in Wolverhampton and Walsall also attain fewer passes than the English average in most GCSE years, sometimes by a very narrow margin. For metropolitan boroughs, Solihull then Dudley perform best. Dudley is the best metropolitan borough at A-level passes and has a consistent post-2000 history of being better than Solihull.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Schools have been off-rolling pupils. Pupils likely to do badly in examinations are expelled before the examinations to improve the school performance in league tables. Expelled pupils then disproportionately get involved in gangs and in crime. Knife crime in the West Midlands is the highest outside London.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: At A-level in 2010, the consistently best performing area was Herefordshire where most A-level candidates attend Hereford sixth form college. Dudley is also above the English average; the other metropolitan boroughs have low-to-average A-level pass or high mark proportions. Shropshire is at the English average.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Regionally in persistent truancy at secondary school, Sandwell had the highest rate at 6.9%; Bromsgrove had the lowest at 2.3%.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: There are thirty-seven FE colleges (FECs). There are six LSCs for the area (which fund FECs), and the Learning and Skills Council head office is based in Coventry. The five largest FE colleges in the region – Bournville College, North Warwickshire and Hinckley College, Solihull College, South & City College Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent College – each have more than 25,000 students.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: School children in Shropshire and Solihull are most likely to attend university, followed by Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The University of Birmingham is the main university in the region and has the most funding. It has a large research grant, as does the University of Warwick, which is the next largest in terms of funding. Birmingham and Warwick are members of the Russell Group of public research universities. Keele and Aston have a moderate research grant, but none of the other universities do. Keele, although having the largest campus in the UK (by area), is one of the smallest universities in the region. There are medical schools at Warwick, Keele and Birmingham. Birmingham and Warwick receive more than twice as much total income than any other university in the region – around £400 million each.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Around 45% of students are from the region, and 35% from other parts of the UK, while 20% are from overseas. The region attracts students from South East England owing to good access via the M40 and the West Coast Main Line, but there is a good mix from other regions too, except the North East (especially) and Yorkshire. Students native to the West Midlands are most likely to study in the region (40%), then the East Midlands (12%), the North West (11%), and then Yorkshire (9%). Very few go to the East of England or the North East. The region has a net export of university students to other regions.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: At time of graduation in 2010 almost 60% of graduates remained in the West Midlands, with 10% going to London, 7% to the South-East, and around 5% to the East Midlands. Very few go to Yorkshire, the North-East, or even (neighbouring) Wales.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Served by many lines in the urban areas such as the West Coast Main Line and branches. The Welsh Marches Line and the Cotswold Line transect the region as well as the Cross Country Route and Chiltern Line. There are plans to reopen the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway . The HS2 (High Speed Two) project is planned to connect London to Birmingham by 2026.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Several notable roads pass through the region, with most converging around the central conurbation. The M5, which connects South West England to the region, passes through Worcestershire, near to Worcester, and through the West Midlands county, past West Bromwich, with its northern terminus at its junction with the M6 just south of Walsall. The M6, which has its southern terminus just outside the southeast of the region at its junction with the M1, and which connects the region to North West England, passes Rugby and Nuneaton in Warwickshire, Coventry and Birmingham, and Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. The M6 toll provides an alternative route to the M6 between Coleshill and Cannock, passing north of Sutton Coldfield and just south of Lichfield. The M40 connects the region through South East England to London, with its northern terminus at its junction with the M42; it passes close to Warwick and Banbury. The M42 connects the M5 at Bromsgrove, passing around the south and east of Birmingham, joining the M40 and M6, passing Solihull and Castle Bromwich, to Tamworth, northeast of Birmingham. The M50 connects the M5 from near Tewkesbury to Ross-on-Wye in the southwest. The M54 connects Wellington in the west, passing Telford, to the M6 near Cannock. The A5 road traverses the region northwest–southeast, passing through Shrewsbury, Telford, Cannock, Tamworth and Nuneaton.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The longest elevated road viaduct in the UK is the section from Gravelly Hill to Castle Bromwich on the M6, opened on 24 May 1972; the Bromford Viaduct is the longest viaduct in the UK. The section of the A45 in Coventry from Willenhall to Allesley in 1939 was one of the UK's first ever large planned road schemes; road schemes on that scale had not been previously built, with few large road schemes outside of London, or were piecemeal.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Princes Square in Wolverhampton had Britain's first automatic traffic lights on 5 November 1927. On 13 January 2012, 34-year-old Ben Westwood of Wednesfield, was caught by the police, when speeding at 180 mph, in an Audi RS5 with a Lamborghini engine, from Wolverhampton up to Stafford on the M6, and back again. He was travelling so fast that he was outpacing the Central Counties Air Operations Unit Eurocopter helicopter. He and the vehicle had been in fifteen smash and grab raids and he was jailed for nine years at Wolverhampton Crown Court in August 2012.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: As part of the transport planning system, the Regional Assembly is under statutory requirement to produce a regional transport strategy (RTS) to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region-wide transport schemes such as those carried out by Highways England and Network Rail.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Within the region, the local transport authorities carry out transport planning through the use of a local transport plan (LTP) which outlines their strategies, policies and implementation programme. The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006–11. In the West Midlands region, the following transport authorities have published their LTP online: Herefordshire, Shropshire U.A., Staffordshire, Telford and Wrekin U.A., Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire. The transport authority of Stoke-on-Trent U.A. publishes a joint local transport plan in partnership with Staffordshire County Council to cover the North Staffordshire Major Urban Area, which includes Stoke-on-Trent and the more urban parts of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire Moorlands.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The West Midlands region of the BBC is based at the Mailbox in Birmingham. From there, the regional programme Midlands Today is produced, as well as the BBC'S flagship daytime series "Doctors". ITV Central broadcasts from Birmingham, off Broad Street on Gas Street next to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, with its ITV News Central regional programme.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Some northern parts of the region, including Biddulph, receive BBC North West Tonight and Granada Reports both of which are based at MediaCityUK in Salford and are broadcast from the Winter Hill transmitter.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The BBC has its engineering training centre at Wood Norton, Worcestershire, off the A44 north of Evesham in Norton and Lenchwick. BBC English Regions is based at Birmingham.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The West Midlands is served by numerous BBC Local Radio stations, including BBC WM, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Hereford & Worcester and BBC Radio Shropshire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Commercial radio stations include Free Radio, Capital Midlands, Capital Mid-Counties, Heart West Midlands, Smooth Radio West Midlands, Absolute Radio, Greatest Hits Radio, Sunshine 855 and Sunshine Radio Herefordshire & Monmouthshire.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Stafford is also notable for Windmill Broadcasting, the UK's only radio station based in a Windmill, in the Broad Eye Windmill.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: William Gibbons of Wolverhampton prints "New Scientist", "The Lady", "Farmers Weekly", "BBC Focus", "Psychologies", "History Revealed", "Classic Rock", and "Tractors & Machinery".


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The Polestar Varnicoat works on the A44 in Pinvin, north of Pershore, for many years printed "Woman's Own", "Heat", "Pick Me Up", "Chat", and "That's Life".


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Channel 4's 4Talent network has a hub in the West Midlands dealing with rising media talent from the region.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The National Sports Centre at Lilleshall Hall is in Sheriffhales, Shropshire, north-east of Telford; it was largely established by the Central Council of Physical Recreation in 1949 as a National Recreation Centre; the south of England had theirs at Bisham Abbey on the Thames. St George's Park National Football Centre is at Tatenhill near Byrkley Park in Needwood Forest, near former the RAF Tatenhill off the A515, four miles west of Burton upon Trent.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: The Tough Guy Competition, now a widespread sport competition in the US, began in 1987 on a farm at Perton in Staffordshire. The main British athletics championships are held in Birmingham in late June. The Olympic Movement started at Much Wenlock, and also to the east of region, where Baron de Coubertin formulated his ideas for sport and the Olympics at Rugby School in 1883, with the headmaster Thomas Arnold, whose son would be the famous poet Matthew Arnold and whose great-grandson would be Aldous Huxley.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: In rugby union, the region is home to professional Premiership teams Wasps RFC and Worcester Warriors. In rugby league, Midlands Hurricanes play in the third tier League 1.


title: West Midlands (region)

text: Britain's first tennis club was founded in 1872 in Leamington Spa. The modern rules of lawn tennis were developed in 1874 by Leamington Tennis Club. Tennis was pioneered in Edgbaston in 1859, and Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society also claims to be the oldest tennis club in the world, where tennis was invented by Major Harry Gem and the Spaniard Augurio Perera.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: The Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is a species of tuna in the family Scombridae. It is variously known as the northern bluefin tuna (mainly when including Pacific bluefin as a subspecies), giant bluefin tuna [for individuals exceeding ], and formerly as the tunny.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: Atlantic bluefins are native to both the western and eastern Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. They have become extinct in the Black Sea. The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a close relative of the other two bluefin tuna species—the Pacific bluefin tuna and the southern bluefin tuna.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: Atlantic bluefin tuna have been recorded at up to in weight, and rival the black marlin, blue marlin, and swordfish as the largest Perciformes. Throughout recorded history, the Atlantic bluefin tuna has been highly prized as a food fish. Besides their commercial value as food, the great size, speed, and power they display as apex predators has attracted the admiration of fishermen, writers, and scientists.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: The Atlantic bluefin tuna has been the foundation of one of the world's most lucrative commercial fisheries. Medium-sized and large individuals are heavily targeted for the Japanese raw-fish market, where all bluefin species are highly prized for sushi and sashimi.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: This commercial importance has led to severe overfishing. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas affirmed in October 2009 that Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks had declined dramatically over the last 40 years, by 72% in the Eastern Atlantic, and by 82% in the Western Atlantic. On 16 October 2009, Monaco formally recommended endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna for an Appendix I CITES listing and international trade ban. In early 2010, European officials, led by the French ecology minister, increased pressure to ban the commercial fishing of bluefin tuna internationally.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: However, a UN proposal to protect the species from international trade was voted down (68 against, 20 for, 30 abstaining). Since then, enforcement of regional fishing quotas has led to some increases in population. the Atlantic bluefin tuna was moved from the category of Endangered to the category of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, many regional populations are still severely depleted, including western stocks which spawn in the Gulf of Mexico.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: Most bluefins are captured commercially by professional fishermen using longlines, purse seines, assorted hook-and-line gear, heavy rods and reels, and harpoons. Recreationally, bluefins have been one of the most important big-game species sought by sports fishermen since the 1930s, particularly in the United States, but also in Canada, Spain, France, and Italy.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: The Atlantic bluefin tuna was one of the many fish species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of "Systema Naturae", where it was given the binomial name "Scomber thynnus".


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: It is most closely related to the Pacific bluefin tuna ("T. orientalis") and the southern bluefin tuna ("T. maccoyii"), and more distantly to the other large tunas of the genus "Thunnus" – the bigeye tuna ("T. obesus") and the yellowfin tuna ("T. albacares"). For many years, the Pacific and Atlantic bluefin tuna species were considered to be the same, or subspecies, and referred to as the "northern bluefin tuna". This name occasionally gives rise to some confusion, as the longtail tuna ("T. tonggol") can in Australia sometimes be known under the name "northern bluefin tuna". This is also true in New Zealand and Fiji.


title: Atlantic bluefin tuna

text: Bluefin tuna were often referred to as the common tunny, especially in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The name "tuna", a derivative of the Spanish "atún", was widely adopted in California in the early 1900s, and has since become accepted for all tunas, including the bluefin, throughout the English-speaking world. In some languages, the red color of the bluefin's meat is included in its name, as in "atún rojo" (Spanish) and "tonno rosso" (Italian), amongst others.