title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: Lyrically, "Scorpion" sees Drake rap about topics that have been common in his discography, including claustrophobia caused by his fame, complications of relationships, and boasting about his rise from the "underdog" to a prominent figure in music. The production features twisted soul samples, ambience, quiet storm, R&B, pop, electronica, and trap.


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: On January 19, 2018, Drake released the two-track extended play "Scary Hours". It included the singles "Diplomatic Immunity" and "God's Plan", the latter of which served as the lead single to "Scorpion" after debuting at number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. Following this, Drake released the album's second single "Nice for What" on April 6, which also charted in the same position. On May 26, the third single "I'm Upset" was released. On July 6, the song "Don't Matter to Me" was sent to British contemporary hit radio as the album's fourth single. On July 10, the song "In My Feelings" was sent to the US rhythmic and contemporary hit radio as the album's fifth single. The song later went on to become the third song off the album to reach number one on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. "Nonstop" was released to rhythmic radio in the US as the album's sixth single on July 31. "Mob Ties" was released to urban contemporary airplay in the US as the album's seventh single on January 6, 2019.


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: A series of billboards promoting the album surfaced in Toronto, on June 22, while a trailer for the album was released on June 26. The album's promotion on the streaming service Spotify attracted some controversy from its subscribers for what they perceived to be excessive promotion, with Drake appearing in most of the service's editorial playlists, including ones which he had nothing to do with, such as those for electronic dance music and even gospel music. Following the release of the album, Drake also embarked on his second co-headlining tour with Migos, Aubrey & the Three Migos Tour, which began on August 12, 2018, in Kansas City.


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: "Scorpion" was met with lukewarm reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 67, based on 26 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: Neil McCormick of "The Daily Telegraph" deemed the album's first side as a "sharply focused hip-hop album, with Drake delivering eloquent zingers," while he thought the second half "showcases Drake's flip side, sensitive R'n'B loverman." Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" wrote that the album "is frequently fantastic, making a stronger claim for Drake's greatness than any amount of swaggering braggadocio", but also noted "there isn't quite enough strong material here to support its gargantuan running time." Mikael Wood of "Los Angeles Times" commented, "yet for all its tiresome megalomania, [the album] is so beautifully rendered—from vocals to samples to features to beats..."; though he also noted Drake "tired and tiring." Nick Flanagan of "Now" mentioned the A side as "mostly introspective threats, neurotic boasting and paranoia about enemies", while the B side as "the same but with a focus on women and his love life", labelling the album "well within his pocket." For "The Independent", Roisin O'Connor described the album as "oddly erratic... The way he darts between different sounds is exhausting and, ultimately, messy. On certain tracks he raps like he has something to prove, on others it's like he has nothing."


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: In a mixed review, Andy Hutchins of "Time" said, "[the] ponderous choice to cleave the overstuffed "Scorpion" into Sides A and B results in two uneven suites of songs." while "a long-frustrating inability to self-edit mars [the album]." "NME"s Luke Morgan Britton noted a "lack of quality control", and felt the album "simply doesn't need to be" 25-track long. Jamieson Cox of "Pitchfork" described "Scorpion" as a "fascinating, flawed album". He praised the consistency of the album's individual songs for a "bloated streaming-era release", especially those included on side B, as well as the album's "sumptuous sound", however criticized Drake's lack of musical and lyrical development, concluding by noting a sense of redundancy in Drake's subject matter: "It's not like Drake needs to serve as a beacon of moral clarity, but this year's paternity saga—and with "Scorpion", its ostensible conclusion—has revealed his shortcomings as a writer and pop personality. Whether it's 2011 or 2018, you're getting the same guy: anxious, calculating, and self-obsessed, with a golden ear and a fondness for terrible punchlines. Fatherhood hasn't made him grow up—and if you've gotten older and wiser, "Scorpion" just feels like the latest in a series of diminishing returns."


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: In a negative review, "The Hollywood Reporter"s Jonny Coleman said "Drake's exhausting, uneven double rap/RnB record finds the artist trying to be all things to all people." Coleman said "the best part of this double album—like much of Drake's discography—is the production. Of course, it's the result of a whopping 32 producers being commissioned for the 25 songs in the package [...] As a result, there are some interesting sonic moments, even if there isn't much cohesion outside of an affinity for low frequencies and baroque existential loops." For "The Washington Post", Chris Richards considered the album "soggy", expressed discomfort about Drake using the same formula in "melody-bruised grievances", and concluded "hearing him do impersonations of more inventive artists is a specific kind of sadness that we usually see only on late night television." In his review for AllMusic, Tim Sendra concluded that the album "doesn't even come close to being one of his best; instead, it's a one-trick record stretched out into 25 endless tracks by an artist who's so deep into the self-obsessed, self-pitying rut he created for himself that he can't see daylight anymore... It's a bleak and tiring place to spend time, and one can only hope that Drake himself gets weary of it soon, too." For "The Irish Times", Dean Van Nguyen described the album as "a painfully dull barrage of lifeless tunes."


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: "Scorpion" was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a day before release due to a technicality that incorporates the track-equivalent units moved by the previously released singles "God's Plan", "Nice for What" and "I'm Upset".


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: In its first day of release, "Scorpion" broke Spotify's then-one-day global record for album streams with 132.45 million streams, more than 50 million plays greater than the previous record, set by Post Malone's "Beerbongs & Bentleys" two months earlier. It also broke Apple Music's single-day record with 170 million streams, breaking Drake's own record set with "More Life".


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: In Drake's home country of Canada, "Scorpion" sold 70,000 album-equivalent units in its opening week. It serves as Drake's eighth number-one album in the country. The album earned 34,000 album-equivalent units in the second week, marking the third highest sales week in 2018. In 2018, "Scorpion" was ranked as the most popular album of the year on the Canadian Albums Chart. In 2018 the album earned 424,000 on-demand audio consumption units in the country.


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: In the United States, "Scorpion" opened atop the "Billboard" 200 with 732,000 album-equivalent units, which included 160,000 pure album sales, making it the biggest first week of the year at the time. It became his eighth entry in a row to top the chart and broke the country's streaming record with 745.92 million streams in its first week. Although debuting at number one, the album serves as Drake's lowest first-week pure sales of his career, selling 692,000 less pure copies than "Views", and 66,000 less than "More Life". All 25 tracks on the album entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 and Drake also became the first musician to simultaneously debut four new songs inside the top 10 of the US Hot 100, with "Nonstop" (at 2), "In My Feelings" (6), "Emotionless" (8), and "Don't Matter to Me" featuring Michael Jackson (9), and seven tracks simultaneously in the top 10 of the chart, becoming only the fourth album to have seven top 10 singles, and the first to achieve this since 1991. As of December 2019, the album has sold over 5,055,000 album-equivalent units in the US, with over 379,000 being pure sales.


title: Scorpion (Drake album)

text: In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, with 64,000 album-equivalent units, becoming Drake's second number-one album on the chart. It remained atop the chart for a second week. In 2018, "Scorpion" was ranked as the fifth most popular album of the year on the UK Albums Chart. As of January 2019, "Scorpion" has sold over 300,000 combined sales in the United Kingdom.


title: San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock

text: The "San Antonio" class is a class of amphibious transport docks, also called a "landing platform, dock" (LPD), used by the United States Navy. These warships replace the LPDs (including "Cleveland" and "Trenton" sub-classes), as well as the tank landing ships, the dock landing ships, and the amphibious cargo ships that have already been retired.


text: Twelve ships of the "San Antonio" class were originally proposed, their original target price was US$890 million; as built, their average cost is $1.6 billion. Defense Authorization for Fiscal Year 2015 included partial funding for the twelfth "San Antonio"-class ship. eleven warships of this class were in service with the U.S. Navy, with an additional three ships under construction. The Navy decided in 2018 to produce a second flight of 13 planned LPD Flight II ships, for a total of 26 in the LPD 17 class; LPD 30, "Harrisburg", is the first Flight II ship.


text: The "San Antonio" class was designed to provide the Navy and U.S. Marine Corps with modern, sea-based platforms that are networked, survivable, and built to operate with 21st century transformational platforms, such as the MV-22 Osprey, the (since canceled) Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), air-cushioned landing craft (LCACs), and future means by which Marines are delivered ashore. The ship is more than 45 percent larger than the "Austin" class, displacing more than 25,000 tons at full load. It carries fewer troops, but has twice as much space for vehicles, landing craft, and aircraft. The ships are also suited to act as recovery ships for spacecraft, with a floodable well deck at the back of the vessel into which a capsule can float; is the recovery ship for the Orion capsule of the Artemis 1 uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission on 11 December 2022.


text: The project embraced a "Design for Ownership" philosophy; a concurrent engineering approach that injects operator, maintainer, and trainer input into the design development process. The goal was to ensure that operational realities are considered throughout the total ship design, integration, construction, test and life cycle support of the new ships and their systems. This process was intended to improve combat readiness, enhance quality of life, and reduce Total Ownership Costs, and resulted in numerous changes during the project.


text: The "San Antonio" class has significant survivability features and computer technology. In addition to Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) protection from air threats, the class was designed to minimize radar signature. Techniques that reduce radar cross-section (RCS) make the ships more difficult to locate and target. Enhanced survivability features include improved nuclear blast and fragmentation protection and a shock-hardened structure. The fiber-optic shipboard-wide area network (SWAN) connects onboard-integrated systems. The network will allow "plug in and fight" configuration, updating and replacing hardware more easily when newer technology becomes available. Moreover, the class has extensive communications, command, control, and intelligence systems to support current and projected expeditionary warfare missions of the 21st century.


text: The class is fitted with the integrated Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS). The system fuses the radars and other sensors and controls the weapons systems for an automated fast reaction capability against air threats.


text: The Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensors (AEM/S) System mast, a 93-foot-high octagonal structure 35 feet in diameter, is constructed of a multi-layer frequency-selective composite material. It is designed to permit the ship's own sensor frequencies with very low loss while reflecting other frequencies. The tapered octagonal shape of the AEM/S is designed to reduce the radar cross section, and enclosing the antennas provides improved performance and greatly reduces maintenance costs.


text: The "San Antonio"-class also incorporates the latest quality of life standards for the embarked Marines and sailors, including sit-up berths, a ship services mall, a learning resource center, and a fitness center. Medical facilities include two operating rooms and 124 beds. Additionally, they are the first USN ships designed to accommodate sailors and Marines of both sexes as part of the crew and embarked troops.


text: By mid-2016, the Navy and Marine Corps were studying installing a vertical launch system (VLS) into "San Antonio"-class ships so they could field larger offensive missiles. The original ship concept included two 8-cell Mk 41 VLS in the bow, which is being reexamined to add Tomahawk cruise missiles to support Marines ashore with little modification to the combat system.


text: Following the extended problems and incidents experienced by , the U.S. Department of Defense's Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), stated in 2010 that the ships are "capable of operating 'in a benign environment', but not effective, suitable and not survivable in a combat situation". The DOT&E found in 2011 that the first ship of the class, USS "San Antonio", had several deficiencies which rendered it "not operationally effective, suitable, or survivable in a hostile environment". In April 2015, the USN proposed adding a 12th ship to the class, which will be built at Ingalls in exchange for a destroyer to be named later. On 4 December 2015, the 12th ship was ordered.


text: U.S. senator Kay Hagan has asked if the LPD-17 construction line should be extended to a 12th ship as a bridge to building the LX(R) (formerly LSD(X)) on the same hull, but the USN has indicated that the requirements of the LX(R) have not yet been settled and that the LPD-17 hull might be too large for such a mission. However, Commandant James F. Amos had also endorsed dropping LSD in favor of continued LPD production.


text: In October 2014, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus signed an internal memo recommending that the LX(R) warship be based on the existing "San Antonio"-class design. The LPD-17 design was selected over a foreign variant, and an entirely new design to meet required capability, capacity, and cost parameters. Official selection of basing the LX(R) off the LPD-17 design still has to come with Milestone A approval. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 included partial funding for a twelfth "San Antonio"-class ship (LPD-28). In early 2014, Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) displayed its Flight IIA version of the LPD-17 hull for the Navy's LX(R) amphibious ship. The design is further modified by removing some of the higher-end capabilities of the "San Antonio" class to create an "amphibious truck" to replace the and landing ship docks. The Flight IIA has improved command and control (C2) features over the LSDs, half the medical spaces of the LPD-17, a smaller hangar, no composite masts, two unspecified main propulsion diesel engines (MPDE), two spots for LCACs or one LCU, a reduced troop capacity (500), and a crew of about 400 sailors. In January 2015, the Navy and Marine Corps decided to go with the modified LPD-17 hull for the LX(R) program.


text: Chief of Naval Operations Greenert considered using some of the extra space in the "San Antonio" class to mount modular equipment in the same fashion as the littoral combat ships. As part of their bid to offer "Flight II" LPD-17s for the dock landing ship replacement contract, HII has suggested fitting out the ships to carry the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. Although there is no formal requirement for the BMD variant, HII report unofficial support for it within the U.S. Navy, such that it will be modeled in wargame scenarios in 2016 and 2017. It could accommodate up to 288 Mk41 VLS missile tubes and a radar with 1000 times the sensitivity of the SPY-1D radar of the Burke destroyers.


text: On 2 August 2018, the U.S. Navy and Huntington Ingalls signed a contract for long lead items for LPD-30, the first of the 13-ship more affordable Flight II class. The contract was for US$165.5M. The cost goal is for US$1.64B for the first ship, and $1.4B for subsequent ships. LPD-30 will be fitted with a Raytheon AN/SPY-6 "Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar", an upgrade over the AN/SPS-48 currently in LPD-17s. Huntington Ingalls will build the new flight exclusively. On 26 March 2019, Huntington Ingalls announced the award of a US$1.47 billion, fixed-price incentive contract for LPD 30 (14th ship and first of Flight II). On 10 October 2019, the name of the ship was announced as for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state's capital. On 3 April 2020, Huntington Ingalls announced that it was awarded a $1.5 billion contract modification for the construction of , named for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


text: The Flight II ships are intended to provide the mission currently provided by the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships and incorporate more than 200 changes over the Flight I ships. The mission provided by Flight II ships will include airport, seaport, and hospital operations and incorporate modifications to the ships’ well decks.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The National Democratic Party of Germany ( or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Party (, DRP). Party statements also self-identify the party as Germany's "only significant patriotic force". On 1 January 2011, the nationalist German People's Union () merged with the NPD and the party name of the National Democratic Party of Germany was extended by the addition of "The People's Union".


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The party is a neo-Nazi organization and has been referred to as "the most significant neo-Nazi party to emerge after 1945". The German Federal Agency for Civic Education, or BPB, has criticized the NPD for working with members of organizations which were later found unconstitutional by the federal courts and disbanded, while the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (), Germany's domestic security agency, classifies the NPD as a "threat to the constitutional order" because of its platform and ideology, and it is under their observation. An effort to outlaw the party failed in 2003, because the government had many informers and agents in the party, some in high position, who had written part of the material used against them.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Since its founding in 1964, the NPD has never managed to win enough votes on the federal level to cross Germany's 5% minimum threshold for representation in the Bundestag; it has succeeded in crossing the 5% threshold and gaining representation in state parliaments 11 times, including one-convocation entry to seven West German state parliaments between November 1966 and April 1968 and two-convocation electoral success in two East German states of Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between 2004 and 2011. Since 2016, the NPD has not been represented in state parliaments. Udo Voigt led the NPD from 1996 to 2011. He was succeeded by Holger Apfel, who in turn was replaced by Udo Pastörs in December 2013. In November 2014, Pastörs was ousted and Frank Franz became the party's leader. Voigt was elected the party's first Member of the European Parliament in 2014. The party lost the seat in the 2019 European Parliament election.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In the 1950s, despite the overall failure of de-Nazification, early right-wing extremist parties in West Germany failed to attract voters away from the moderate government that had presided over Germany's recovery. In November 1964, however, right-wing splinter groups united to form the NPD. One of the four founding members was Adolf von Thadden (1921–1996), alleged to have been an agent for the British MI6. Thadden had a British grandmother and was NPD chairman from 1967 to 1971. Owing to von Thadden's effective leadership the NPD achieved success in the late 1960s, winning local government seats across West Germany. In 1966 and 1967, fuelled by West German discontent with a lagging economy and with the leadership of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, the NPD won 15 seats in Bavaria, 10 in lower Saxony, 8 in Hesse, and several other seats. However, the NPD did not then and has never since received the minimum 5% of votes in federal elections that allow a party to send delegates to the German Parliament. The NPD came closest to that goal in the 1969 election, when it received 4.3 percent of the vote. Helping pave the way for these NPD gains were an economic downturn, frustrations with the emerging leftist youth counter-culture, and the emergence of a tripartite coalition government among the center-right Christian Democratic Party (CDU), the Christian Social Union (the CDU's present-day sister party), and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). The coalition government had created a vacuum in the traditional political right wing, which the NPD tried to fill. Additionally, the party benefited from hostility to the growing immigrant population and fears that the government would repudiate claims to the "lost territories" (pre-World War II German territory east of the Oder-Neisse River.) The historian Walter Laqueur has argued that the NPD in the 1960s cannot be classified as a neo-Nazi party.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Yet, when the coalition fell apart, around 75 percent of those who had voted for the NPD drifted back to the center-right. During the 1970s, the NPD went into decline, suffering from an internal split over failing to get into the German Parliament. The issue of immigration spurred a small rebound in popular interest from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, but the party only saw limited success in various local elections.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In September 2019, the NPD politician Stefan Jagsch was elected as representative of Altenstadt-Waldsiedlung. The unanimous election of the NPD politician by the local council led to irritation and horror in other parties, such as Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose local council members had voted for Jagsch.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Since its founding in 1964, the NPD has only won seats in regional assemblies. Its successes in state parliaments can be grouped into two periods: the late 1960s (1966 in Hesse; 1967 in Bremen, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Schleswig-Holstein; and 1968 in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria), and former East Germany since reunification (2006 and 2011 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 2004 and 2009 in Saxony).


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In the 2004 state election in Saxony, the NPD won 9.2% of the overall vote. After the 2009 state election in Saxony, the NPD sent eight representatives to the Saxony state parliament, having lost four representatives since the 2004 election. The NPD lost their representation in Saxony at the 2014 state election. They also lost all representation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at the 2016 state election.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NPD maintained a non-competition agreement with the German People's Union (DVU) between 2004 and 2009. The third nationalist-oriented party, the Republicans (REP), has so far refused to join this agreement. However, Kerstin Lorenz, a local representative of the Republicans in Saxony, sabotaged her party's registration to help the NPD in the Saxony election.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In the 2005 federal elections, the NPD received 1.6 per cent of the vote nationally. It garnered the highest per cent of votes in the states of Saxony (4.9 per cent), Thuringia (3.7 per cent), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (3.5 per cent) and Brandenburg (3.2 per cent). In most other states, the party won around 1 percent of the total votes cast. In the 2006 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election, the NPD received 7.3% of the vote and thus achieved state representation there, as well.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NPD had 5,300 registered party members in 2004. Over the course of 2006, the NPD processed roughly 2,000 party applications to push the membership total over 7,200. In 2008, the trend of a growing number of members has been reversed and NPD's membership is estimated at 7,000.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In the 2014 European elections, Udo Voigt was elected as the party's first Member of the European Parliament.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In 2001, the federal government, the Bundestag, and the Bundesrat jointly attempted to have the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ban the NPD. The court, the highest court in Germany, has the exclusive power to ban parties if they are found to be "anti-constitutional" through the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. However, the petition was rejected in 2003 after it was discovered that a number of the NPD's inner circle, including as many as 30 of its top 200 leaders were undercover agents or informants of the German secret services, like the federal Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz. They include a former deputy chairman of the party and author of an anti-Semitic tract that formed a central part of the government's case. Since the secret services were unwilling to fully disclose their agents' identities and activities, the court found it impossible to decide which moves by the party were based on genuine party decisions and which were controlled by the secret services in an attempt to further the ban. The court determined that so many of the party's actions were influenced by the government that the resulting "lack of clarity" made it impossible to defend a ban. "The presence of the state at the leadership level makes influence on its aims and activities unavoidable," it concluded.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Horst Mahler (NPD), a former member of the far-left terrorist organisation Red Army Faction, defended the NPD before the court. In May 2009, several state politicians published an extensive document which they claim proves the NPD's opposition to the constitution without relying on information supplied by undercover agents. This move was intended to lead up to a second attempt to have the NPD banned.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: At the 2010 NPD party conference at Bamberg it was announced that the party would ask its members to approve a merger with the German People's Union (DVU). After the merger on 1 January 2011, the combined party briefly used the name "NPD – Die Volksunion" (NPD - The People's Union). Between 2004 and 2009 the two parties had agreed not to compete against each other in elections. However, on 27 January 2011, Munich's "Landgericht" (regional court) in a preliminary injunction declared the merger null and void.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The National Democratic party has recently supported the green movement. This is one of many strategies the party has used to try to gain supporters. Historically the opposing party the German Greens have fully supported the green movement in Germany. The German Greens group was a successful European ecological group that began in 1980. Kate Connolly who is a correspondent for The Guardian wrote the article: "German far-right extremists tap into green movement for support". In the article Connolly explains the opposition between these two political groups pertaining to the green movement. The Artaman league is essential in understanding the green movements history. This was a farming movement that was inspired by the "blood and soil" ruralist ideology adopted from the Nazis. This farming movement affected the Mecklenburg region of Germany during the 19th century. Settlers at this time took advantage of the cheap cost of land in these rural communities. These settlers were in support of the Artaman league and continued to reinforce the ideology.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NDP's plans are to take the ecological movement back from the German Greens group. Connolly spoke to different farmers, organizations, and employees of the government to represent the different perspectives of the ecological movement. Hans-Gunter Laimer a farmer who ran for election for the NPD mentions his frustration that the German Greens groups has dominated the organic farming market for too long. He has also been linked to other German groups specifically Umwelt and Aktiv. Both political parties are concerned with the ways they are in opposition to one another. The NPD supporters of the green movement are in favour of local produce. However, they are against GMOS, pesticides, and intensive livestock. Organisations involved in the farming industry have lost consumers because they are not able to state what the political views of the farmers products are to the consumer. For example, BioPark is an organic cultivation organisation with a vetting process to certify organic farmers. The vetting process is strictly based on cultivation methods and not on political affiliations. BioPark has lost costumers because left-leaning supporters worry buying local organic produce is supporting the far-right extremist.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The department of rural enlightenment has supported the importance of distinguishing between these two political parties. The department created a brochure called "Nature Conservation Versus Right-wing Extremist". The brochure was created in order to help consumers distinguish from the far-right extremists. Other representatives from the government have spoken on this divide. For example, Connolly mentions a representative of the Centre for Democratic culture in Mecklenburg who chose to stay anonymous in order to protect themself. The representative stated the goal of the NDP is to build bridges between citizens. The NDP is strategic in the way they are going about this in a subtle quite manner. The result the NDP is trying to achieve is to reinforce the division between the two political parties for when NDP no longer becomes associated with politics.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: On 21 January 2005, during a moment of silence in the Saxon state assembly in Dresden to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz extermination camp, twelve members of the NPD walked out in protest. The NPD stated that they were upset that a moment of silence was being held for those who were murdered in the Auschwitz camp and that none was being given for those who died during the bombing of Dresden in World War II, with the anniversary of both events falling relatively close to each other. Holger Apfel, leader of the NPD in Saxony and deputy leader of the party nationwide, made a speech in the Saxon State Parliament in which he called the Allied forces of the United States and the United Kingdom "mass murderers" because of their role in the bombing. His colleague Jürgen Gansel went on to describe the bombing itself as a "holocaust of bombs".


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Voigt voiced his support and reiterated the statement, which some controversially claimed was a violation of the German law which forbids Holocaust denial. However, after judicial review, it was decided that Udo Voigt's description of the 1945 RAF bombing of Dresden as a holocaust was an exercise of free speech and "defamation of the dead" was not the purpose of his statement.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In 2009, the NPD joined the Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland in a demonstration on the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden in World War II. Roughly 6,000 people came to participate in the event.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NPD's strategy has been to create "nationally liberated zones" and circumvent its marginal electoral status by concentrating on regions where support is strongest. In March 2006, musician Konstantin Wecker tried to set up an in-school anti-fascist concert in Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt two weeks before the state elections. The NPD argued that because of politics, the date and the in-school venue, the concert "was an unacceptable form of political campaigning." In protest, the NPD vowed to buy the tickets and turn up en masse at Wecker's show, which led local authorities to cancel the event. The Social Democrats and the Greens were outraged by the decision, which the Central Council of Jews in Germany criticized as "politically bankrupt".


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NPD was going to sponsor a march through Leipzig on 21 June 2006, as the 2006 World Cup was going on. The party wanted to show its support for the Iranian national football team, which was playing in Leipzig, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, the NPD decided against the demonstration; only a counter-demonstration took place that day, in support of Israel. During the World Cup, the party's web site stated that due to the prevalence of people of non-German descent on the German national football team, the team "was not really German".


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Later in 2006, the party designed leaflets, which said "White – not just the color of a jersey! For a true National team!" This leaflet was never mass-distributed, but copies were confiscated during a raid on the NPD's headquarters, when authorities had been hoping to find material linking the party to Nazism. Patrick Owomoyela was later informed about the poster after it was noted that the image depicted a footballer wearing a white jersey with Owomoyela's number on it. Owomoyela, of Nigerian descent, had played for the German national team in the years before the World Cup and proceeded to file a lawsuit against the party. The party was able to delay the procedures but in April 2009 three party officials (Udo Voigt, Frank Schwerdt and Klaus Beier) were sentenced for Volksverhetzung (Voigt and Beier to 7 months on probation, Schwerdt to 10 months on probation).


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In November 2008, shortly after the 2008 United States presidential election, the NPD published a document entitled "Africa conquers the White House" which stated that the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States was the result of "the American alliance of Jews and Negroes" and that Obama aimed to destroy the United States' "white identity". The NPD claimed, "A non-white America is a declaration of war on all people who believe an organically grown social order based on language and culture, history and heritage to be the essence of humanity" and "Barack Obama hides this declaration of war behind his pushy sunshine smile." The NPD also stated that the extensive support for Obama in Germany "resembles an African tropical disease."


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In September 2009, another incident involving the NPD and a football player of the German national team was reported. In a television show of a regional channel, NPD spokesman Beier called midfielder Mesut Özil a "Plaste-Deutscher" ("Plastic German" or "ID Card German"), meaning someone who is not born German, but becomes German by naturalisation, particularly for certain benefits. The German Football Association announced that they would immediately file a lawsuit against the NPD and their spokesman, if requested by Özil.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: During the Gaza War in 2009, the NPD planned a "Holocaust" vigil for Gaza in support of the Palestinians. Charlotte Knobloch, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said "joint hatred of everything Jewish is unifying neo-Nazis and Islamists." Knobloch claimed German-Palestinian protestors "unashamedly admitted" that they would vote for the NPD during the next election.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In 2009, the NPD hung anti-Polish posters with slogan ""Polen-Invasion Stoppen"" ("Stop the Polish invasion") in Dresden and Görlitz. Mayor of Görlitz and then Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, condemned the posters.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In April 2009, the party was fined 2.5 million euros for filing incorrect financial statements, resulting, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, in "serious financial trouble" for its administration.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: On 23 September 2009, four days before the federal elections, German police raided the Berlin headquarters of the NPD to investigate claims that letters sent from the NPD to politicians from immigrant backgrounds incited racial hatred. The NPD leader in Berlin defended the letters saying that "As part of a democracy, we're entitled to say if something doesn't suit us in this country."


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In 2011, authorities were reportedly trying to link the party, and specifically 30-year-old national organization director Patrick Wieschke, to the so-called "Zwickau terrorist cell". This raised the possibility of another effort to outlaw the party. The cell had been implicated in a string of murders and the November robbery of a savings bank in Eisenach. Authorities were also pursuing a gun case against Ralf Wohlleben, former deputy chairman of the party's branch in Thuringia, though the latter case was reportedly unlikely to translate into a national-level challenge to the party's legal standing. The likelihood of success of renewed banning attempts has been questioned, given the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has over 130 informants in the party, some in high positions, raising the question of whether the party is effectively controlled by the government.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In June 2012, several NPD members of Saxony's parliament attended the parliament's sittings wearing clothing from Thor Steinar, a clothing brand that is popular amongst neo-Nazis; the legislature responded by saying that such provocative clothing was not permitted to be worn in the parliament and demanded that the NPD members remove and replace their attire; the NPD members refused, resulting in the members being expelled from the parliament and banned from attending the next three parliamentary sittings. The NPD members denied accusations that they wore the shirts as a deliberate provocation.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: German officials tried to outlaw the party again in December 2012, with the interior ministers of all 16 states recommending a ban. The Federal Constitutional Court is yet to vote on the recommendation. In March 2013 the Merkel government said it would not try to ban the NPD.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: German officials again tried to outlaw the NPD by submitting a request to the Federal Constitutional Court in 2016.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: On 17 January 2017, the second senate of the Federal Constitutional Court rejected the attempt to outlaw the party. The reasoning behind the decision was that the NPD's political significance is virtually nonexistent at both the state and federal levels and that as such, the party had no chance of posing a significant threat to the constitutional order. It was also reasoned that outlawing the party would not change the mindset and political ideology of its members and supporters, who in the event of a ban could simply form a new movement under a different name.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: However, the Court also openly acknowledged that NPD is unconstitutional based on its manifesto and ideology, citing "links to neo-Nazism" and that "anti-semitism was a structural element of the party ideology" in its reasoning. The Court also indirectly suggested that state grants or other financial contributions should not be given to such parties to further their unconstitutional cause. This prompted calls by the public for the proposal of a constitutional amendment which would forbid unconstitutional parties' financing to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. The proposal was criticised by the interior policy spokesman of Die Linke, who claimed that such a constitutional amendment could stand to serve as a politically dubious way to remove a political opponent. Law Professor Hans Herbert von Arnim defended the rights of small parties, including the NPD.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NPD is a neo-Nazi political party. It calls itself a party of "grandparents and grandchildren" because the 1960s generation in Germany, known for the leftist student movement, strongly opposes the NPD's policies. The NPD's economic program promotes social security for Germans and control against plutocracy. They discredit and reject the "liberal-capitalist system".


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NPD argues that NATO fails to represent the interests and needs of European people. The party considers the European Union to be little more than a reorganisation of a Soviet-style government of Europe along financial lines. Although highly critical of the EU, as long as Germany remains a part of it, the NPD opposes Turkey's incorporation into the organisation. Voigt envisions future collaboration and continued friendly relations with other nationalists and European nationalist parties. The NPD is strongly anti-Zionist, frequently criticizing the policies and activities of Israel.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The NPD's platform asserts that Germany is larger than the present-day Federal Republic, and calls for a return of German territory lost after World War II, a foreign policy position abandoned by the German government in 1990.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In the early 21st century, long-standing efforts to ban the party were renewed. The 2005 report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution contains the following description:


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The party continues to pursue a "people's front" of the nationalists [consisting of] the NPD, DVU, and forces not attached to any party, which is supposed to develop into a base for an encompassing 'German people's movement'. The aggressive agitation of the NPD unabashedly aims towards the abolition of parliamentary democracy and the democratic constitutional state, although the use of violence is currently still officially rejected for tactical reasons. Statements of the NPD document an essential affinity with Nazism; its agitation is racist, antisemitic, homophobic, revisionist, and intends to disparage the democratic and lawful order of the constitution.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Voigt has held meetings with various proponents of white nationalism, including David Duke, a US white nationalist, author, politician, and activist. Between 1989 and 1992, the International Third Position began to ally itself with the NPD in Germany and "Forza Nuova" in Italy.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: They have been in contact with Youth Defence, the Irish anti-abortion group, since 1996. Justin Barrett, former leader of Youth Defence and current President of the National Party of Ireland, has spoken at their events in Passau in 2000.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The party also has connections with far-right parties and politicians in Croatia. In 2017, according to the claims of Dražen Keleminec, president of the marginal far-right Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights (A-HSP), NPD party member Alexander Neidlein took part in the party's march to show their support and declare allegiance to then-recently elected American president Donald Trump. During the march, the party's members, dressed in black uniforms, were waving flags of the NPD and the United States while shouting the Ustasha salute "Za dom spremni". The following day, the U.S. embassy in Zagreb reacted by publishing a statement in which they strongly condemned the march and rejected any attempts to connect the United States with Ustasha ideology.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: In 2018, Croatian far-right MP Željko Glasnović took part in the party congress in the town of Büdingen, expressing his support for them.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: Junge Nationalisten (short: JN; until 13 January 2018 Junge Nationaldemokraten) is the official youth organization of the right-wing extremist NPD founded in 1967. According to the NPD statutes, the JN are an "integral part" of the party.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The JN are committed to the basic program of the NPD, but represent these points of view much more aggressively, which is evident both during demonstrations and in political style. They are observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and classified as right-wing extremists. Their regular publication is called The Activist. In this central organ, under the heading "The Federal Leader Has the Word", they describe themselves as "representatives of the national revolutionary wing within the NPD". The youth organization criticizes those in the NPD who have made the "fight for parliaments" the "most important goal". Instead, "resistance and criticism are appropriate, since these developments run the risk of gradual adjustment and bourgeoisie". The JN describe themselves as anti-imperialist. Among other things, they call for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan, describe Israel as the "enemy of all peoples", and refer to it as becoming a parasitic state.


title: National Democratic Party of Germany

text: The JN maintains active contacts with a network of neo-Nazi organizations across Europe, like the Nordic Resistance Movement whose Finnish independence day march it has attended, along with National Corps of Ukraine, Bulgarian National Union, Serbian Action and others.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Single-precision floating-point format (sometimes called FP32 or float32) is a computer number format, usually occupying 32 bits in computer memory; it represents a wide dynamic range of numeric values by using a floating radix point.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: A floating-point variable can represent a wider range of numbers than a fixed-point variable of the same bit width at the cost of precision. A signed 32-bit integer variable has a maximum value of 2 − 1 = 2,147,483,647, whereas an IEEE 754 32-bit base-2 floating-point variable has a maximum value of (2 − 2) × 2 ≈ 3.4028235 × 10. All integers with 7 or fewer decimal digits, and any 2 for a whole number −149 ≤ "n" ≤ 127, can be converted exactly into an IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point value.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: In the IEEE 754-2008 standard, the 32-bit base-2 format is officially referred to as binary32; it was called single in IEEE 754-1985. IEEE 754 specifies additional floating-point types, such as 64-bit base-2 "double precision" and, more recently, base-10 representations.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: One of the first programming languages to provide single- and double-precision floating-point data types was Fortran. Before the widespread adoption of IEEE 754-1985, the representation and properties of floating-point data types depended on the computer manufacturer and computer model, and upon decisions made by programming-language designers. E.g., GW-BASIC's single-precision data type was the 32-bit MBF floating-point format.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Single precision is termed "REAL" in Fortran, "SINGLE-FLOAT" in Common Lisp, "float" in C, C++, C#, Java, "Float" in Haskell and Swift, and "Single" in Object Pascal (Delphi), Visual Basic, and MATLAB. However, "float" in Python, Ruby, PHP, and OCaml and "single" in versions of Octave before 3.2 refer to double-precision numbers. In most implementations of PostScript, and some embedded systems, the only supported precision is single.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: This gives from 6 to 9 significant decimal digits precision. If a decimal string with at most 6 significant digits is converted to the IEEE 754 single-precision format, giving a normal number, and then converted back to a decimal string with the same number of digits, the final result should match the original string. If an IEEE 754 single-precision number is converted to a decimal string with at least 9 significant digits, and then converted back to single-precision representation, the final result must match the original number.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: The sign bit determines the sign of the number, which is the sign of the significand as well. The exponent is an 8-bit unsigned integer from 0 to 255, in biased form: an exponent value of 127 represents the actual zero. Exponents range from −126 to +127 because exponents of −127 (all 0s) and +128 (all 1s) are reserved for special numbers.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: The true significand includes 23 fraction bits to the right of the binary point and an "implicit leading bit" (to the left of the binary point) with value 1, unless the exponent is stored with all zeros. Thus only 23 fraction bits of the significand appear in the memory format, but the total precision is 24 bits (equivalent to log(2) ≈ 7.225 decimal digits). The bits are laid out as follows:


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: The real value assumed by a given 32-bit "binary32" data with a given "sign", biased exponent "e" (the 8-bit unsigned integer), and a "23-bit fraction" is


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: The single-precision binary floating-point exponent is encoded using an offset-binary representation, with the zero offset being 127; also known as exponent bias in the IEEE 754 standard.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Thus, in order to get the true exponent as defined by the offset-binary representation, the offset of 127 has to be subtracted from the stored exponent.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: The minimum positive normal value is formula_13 and the minimum positive (subnormal) value is formula_14.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: In general, refer to the IEEE 754 standard itself for the strict conversion (including the rounding behaviour) of a real number into its equivalent binary32 format.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Here we can show how to convert a base-10 real number into an IEEE 754 binary32 format using the following outline:


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Consider 0.375, the fractional part of 12.375. To convert it into a binary fraction, multiply the fraction by 2, take the integer part and repeat with the new fraction by 2 until a fraction of zero is found or until the precision limit is reached which is 23 fraction digits for IEEE 754 binary32 format.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: We see that formula_18 can be exactly represented in binary as formula_19. Not all decimal fractions can be represented in a finite digit binary fraction. For example, decimal 0.1 cannot be represented in binary exactly, only approximated. Therefore:


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Since IEEE 754 binary32 format requires real values to be represented in formula_21 format (see Normalized number, Denormalized number), 1100.011 is shifted to the right by 3 digits to become formula_22


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Note: consider converting 68.123 into IEEE 754 binary32 format: Using the above procedure you expect to get formula_26 with the last 4 bits being 1001. However, due to the default rounding behaviour of IEEE 754 format, what you get is formula_27, whose last 4 bits are 1010.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: From these we can form the resulting 32-bit IEEE 754 binary32 format representation of real number 1:


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: From these we can form the resulting 32-bit IEEE 754 binary32 format representation of real number 0.25:


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: From these we can form the resulting 32-bit IEEE 754 binary32 format representation of real number 0.375:


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Each of the 24 bits of the significand (including the implicit 24th bit), bit 23 to bit 0, represents a value, starting at 1 and halves for each bit, as follows:


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: The significand in this example has three bits set: bit 23, bit 22, and bit 19. We can now decode the significand by adding the values represented by these bits.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: These examples are given in bit "representation", in hexadecimal and binary, of the floating-point value. This includes the sign, (biased) exponent, and significand.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: By default, 1/3 rounds up, instead of down like double precision, because of the even number of bits in the significand. The bits of 1/3 beyond the rounding point are codice_1 which is more than 1/2 of a unit in the last place.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: Encodings of qNaN and sNaN are not specified in IEEE 754 and implemented differently on different processors. The x86 family and the ARM family processors use the most significant bit of the significand field to indicate a quiet NaN. The PA-RISC processors use the bit to indicate a signalling NaN.


title: Single-precision floating-point format

text: The design of floating-point format allows various optimisations, resulting from the easy generation of a base-2 logarithm approximation from an integer view of the raw bit pattern. Integer arithmetic and bit-shifting can yield an approximation to reciprocal square root (fast inverse square root), commonly required in computer graphics.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is "a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability".


title: Structural functionalism

text: This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions.


title: Structural functionalism

text: A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents theses parts of society as "organs" that work toward the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes "the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system". For Talcott Parsons, "structural-functionalism" came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of social science, rather than a specific school of thought.


title: Structural functionalism

text: In sociology, classical theories are defined by a tendency towards biological analogy and notions of social evolutionism:


title: Structural functionalism

text: While one may regard functionalism as a logical extension of the organic analogies for societies presented by political philosophers such as Rousseau, sociology draws firmer attention to those institutions unique to industrialized capitalist society (or "modernity").


title: Structural functionalism

text: Auguste Comte believed that society constitutes a separate "level" of reality, distinct from both biological and inorganic matter. Explanations of social phenomena had therefore to be constructed within this level, individuals being merely transient occupants of comparatively stable social roles. In this view, Comte was followed by Émile Durkheim.


title: Structural functionalism

text: A central concern for Durkheim was the question of how certain societies maintain internal stability and survive over time. He proposed that such societies tend to be segmented, with equivalent parts held together by shared values, common symbols or (as his nephew Marcel Mauss held), systems of exchanges. Durkheim used the term "mechanical solidarity" to refer to these types of "social bonds, based on common sentiments and shared moral values, that are strong among members of pre-industrial societies". In modern, complex societies, members perform very different tasks, resulting in a strong interdependence. Based on the metaphor above of an organism in which many parts function together to sustain the whole, Durkheim argued that complex societies are held together by "solidarity", i.e. "social bonds, based on specialization and interdependence, that are strong among members of industrial societies".


title: Structural functionalism

text: The central concern of structural functionalism may be regarded as a continuation of the Durkheimian task of explaining the apparent stability and internal cohesion needed by societies to endure over time. Societies are seen as coherent, bounded and fundamentally relational constructs that function like organisms, with their various (or social institutions) working together in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion toward achieving an overall social equilibrium. All social and cultural phenomena are therefore seen as functional in the sense of working together, and are effectively deemed to have "lives" of their own. They are primarily analyzed in terms of this function. The individual is significant not in and of themselves, but rather in terms of their status, their position in patterns of social relations, and the behaviours associated with their status. Therefore, the social structure is the network of statuses connected by associated roles.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Functionalism also has an anthropological basis in the work of theorists such as Marcel Mauss, Bronisław Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown. The prefix' structural' emerged in Radcliffe-Brown's specific usage. Radcliffe-Brown proposed that most stateless, "primitive" societies, lacking strong centralized institutions, are based on an association of corporate-descent groups, i.e. the respective society's recognised kinship groups. Structural functionalism also took on Malinowski's argument that the basic building block of society is the nuclear family, and that the clan is an outgrowth, not "vice versa".


title: Structural functionalism

text: It is simplistic to equate the perspective directly with political conservatism. The tendency to emphasize "cohesive systems", however, leads functionalist theories to be contrasted with "conflict theories" which instead emphasize social problems and inequalities.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Auguste Comte, the "Father of Positivism", pointed out the need to keep society unified as many traditions were diminishing. He was the first person to coin the term sociology. Comte suggests that sociology is the product of a three-stage development:


title: Structural functionalism

text: Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was a British philosopher famous for applying the theory of natural selection to society. He was in many ways the first true sociological functionalist. In fact, while Durkheim is widely considered the most important functionalist among positivist theorists, it is known that much of his analysis was culled from reading Spencer's work, especially his "Principles of Sociology" (1874–96). In describing society, Spencer alludes to the analogy of a human body. Just as the structural parts of the human body—the skeleton, muscles, and various internal organs—function independently to help the entire organism survive, social structures work together to preserve society.


title: Structural functionalism

text: While reading Spencer's massive volumes can be tedious (long passages explicating the organic analogy, with reference to cells, simple organisms, animals, humans and society), there are some important insights that have quietly influenced many contemporary theorists, including Talcott Parsons, in his early work "The Structure of Social Action" (1937). Cultural anthropology also consistently uses functionalism.


title: Structural functionalism

text: This evolutionary model, unlike most 19th century evolutionary theories, is cyclical, beginning with the differentiation and increasing complication of an organic or "super-organic" (Spencer's term for a social system) body, followed by a fluctuating state of equilibrium and disequilibrium (or a state of adjustment and adaptation), and, finally, the stage of disintegration or dissolution. Following Thomas Malthus' population principles, Spencer concluded that society is constantly facing selection pressures (internal and external) that force it to adapt its internal structure through differentiation.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Every solution, however, causes a new set of selection pressures that threaten society's viability. Spencer was not a determinist in the sense that he never said that


title: Structural functionalism

text: In fact, he was in many ways a political sociologist, and recognized that the degree of centralized and consolidated authority in a given polity could make or break its ability to adapt. In other words, he saw a general trend towards the centralization of power as leading to stagnation and ultimately, pressures to decentralize.


title: Structural functionalism

text: More specifically, Spencer recognized three functional needs or prerequisites that produce selection pressures: they are regulatory, operative (production) and distributive. He argued that all societies need to solve problems of control and coordination, production of goods, services and ideas, and, finally, to find ways of distributing these resources.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Initially, in tribal societies, these three needs are inseparable, and the kinship system is the dominant structure that satisfies them. As many scholars have noted, all institutions are subsumed under kinship organization, but, with increasing population (both in terms of sheer numbers and density), problems emerge with regard to feeding individuals, creating new forms of organization—consider the emergent division of labour—coordinating and controlling various differentiated social units, and developing systems of resource distribution.


title: Structural functionalism

text: The solution, as Spencer sees it, is to differentiate structures to fulfill more specialized functions; thus, a chief or "big man" emerges, soon followed by a group of lieutenants, and later kings and administrators. The structural parts of society (e.g. families, work) function interdependently to help society function. Therefore, social structures work together to preserve society.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Talcott Parsons began writing in the 1930s and contributed to sociology, political science, anthropology, and psychology. Structural functionalism and Parsons have received a lot of criticism. Numerous critics have pointed out Parsons' underemphasis of political and monetary struggle, the basics of social change, and the by and large "manipulative" conduct unregulated by qualities and standards. Structural functionalism, and a large portion of Parsons' works, appear to be insufficient in their definitions concerning the connections amongst institutionalized and non-institutionalized conduct, and the procedures by which institutionalization happens.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Parsons was heavily influenced by Durkheim and Max Weber, synthesizing much of their work into his action theory, which he based on the system-theoretical concept and the methodological principle of voluntary action. He held that "the social system is made up of the actions of individuals". His starting point, accordingly, is the interaction between two individuals faced with a variety of choices about how they might act, choices that are influenced and constrained by a number of physical and social factors.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Parsons determined that each individual has expectations of the other's action and reaction to their own behavior, and that these expectations would (if successful) be "derived" from the accepted norms and values of the society they inhabit. As Parsons himself emphasized, in a general context there would never exist any perfect "fit" between behaviors and norms, so such a relation is never complete or "perfect".


title: Structural functionalism

text: Social norms were always problematic for Parsons, who never claimed (as has often been alleged) that social norms were generally accepted and agreed upon, should this prevent some kind of universal law. Whether social norms were accepted or not was for Parsons simply a historical question.


title: Structural functionalism

text: As behaviors are repeated in more interactions, and these expectations are entrenched or institutionalized, a role is created. Parsons defines a "role" as the normatively-regulated participation "of a person in a concrete process of social interaction with specific, concrete role-partners". Although any individual, theoretically, can fulfill any role, the individual is expected to conform to the norms governing the nature of the role they fulfill.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Furthermore, one person can and does fulfill many different roles at the same time. In one sense, an individual can be seen to be a "composition" of the roles he inhabits. Certainly, today, when asked to describe themselves, most people would answer with reference to their societal roles.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Parsons later developed the idea of roles into collectivities of roles that complement each other in fulfilling functions for society. Some roles are bound up in institutions and social structures (economic, educational, legal and even gender-based). These are functional in the sense that they assist society in operating and fulfilling its functional needs so that society runs smoothly.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Contrary to prevailing myth, Parsons never spoke about a society where there was no conflict or some kind of "perfect" equilibrium. A society's cultural value-system was in the typical case never completely integrated, never static and most of the time, like in the case of the American society, in a complex state of transformation relative to its historical point of departure. To reach a "perfect" equilibrium was not any serious theoretical question in Parsons analysis of social systems, indeed, the most dynamic societies had generally cultural systems with important inner tensions like the US and India. These tensions were a source of their strength according to Parsons rather than the opposite. Parsons never thought about system-institutionalization and the level of strains (tensions, conflict) in the system as opposite forces per se.


title: Structural functionalism

text: The key processes for Parsons for system reproduction are socialization and social control. Socialization is important because it is the mechanism for transferring the accepted norms and values of society to the individuals within the system. Parsons never spoke about "perfect socialization"in any society socialization was only partial and "incomplete" from an integral point of view.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Parsons states that "this point ... is independent of the sense in which [the] individual is concretely autonomous or creative rather than 'passive' or 'conforming', for individuality and creativity, are to a considerable extent, phenomena of the institutionalization of expectations"; they are culturally constructed.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Socialization is supported by the positive and negative sanctioning of role behaviours that do or do not meet these expectations. A punishment could be informal, like a snigger or gossip, or more formalized, through institutions such as prisons and mental homes. If these two processes were perfect, society would become static and unchanging, but in reality, this is unlikely to occur for long.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Parsons recognizes this, stating that he treats "the structure of the system as problematic and subject to change", and that his concept of the tendency towards equilibrium "does not imply the empirical dominance of stability over change". He does, however, believe that these changes occur in a relatively smooth way.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Individuals in interaction with changing situations adapt through a process of "role bargaining". Once the roles are established, they create norms that guide further action and are thus institutionalized, creating stability across social interactions. Where the adaptation process cannot adjust, due to sharp shocks or immediate radical change, structural dissolution occurs and either new structures (or therefore a new system) are formed, or society dies. This model of social change has been described as a "moving equilibrium", and emphasizes a desire for social order.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore (1945) gave an argument for social stratification based on the idea of "functional necessity" (also known as the Davis-Moore hypothesis). They argue that the most difficult jobs in any society have the highest incomes in order to motivate individuals to fill the roles needed by the division of labour. Thus, inequality serves social stability.


title: Structural functionalism

text: This argument has been criticized as fallacious from a number of different angles: the argument is both that the individuals who are the most deserving are the highest rewarded, and that "a system of unequal rewards" is necessary, otherwise no individuals would perform as needed for the society to function. The problem is that these rewards are supposed to be based upon objective merit, rather than subjective "motivations." The argument also does not clearly establish why some positions are worth more than others, even when they benefit more people in society, e.g., teachers compared to athletes and movie stars. Critics have suggested that structural inequality (inherited wealth, family power, etc.) is itself a cause of individual success or failure, not a consequence of it.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Robert K. Merton made important refinements to functionalist thought. He fundamentally agreed with Parsons' theory but acknowledged that Parsons' theory could be questioned, believing that it was over generalized. Merton tended to emphasize middle range theory rather than a grand theory, meaning that he was able to deal specifically with some of the limitations in Parsons' thinking. Merton believed that any social structure probably has many functions, some more obvious than others. He identified three main limitations: functional unity, universal functionalism and indispensability. He also developed the concept of deviance and made the distinction between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions referred to the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern. Latent functions referred to unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Merton criticized functional unity, saying that not all parts of a modern complex society work for the functional unity of society. Consequently, there is a social dysfunction referred to as any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society. Some institutions and structures may have other functions, and some may even be generally dysfunctional, or be functional for some while being dysfunctional for others. This is because not all structures are functional for society as a whole. Some practices are only functional for a dominant individual or a group. There are two types of functions that Merton discusses the "manifest functions" in that a social pattern can trigger a recognized and intended consequence. The manifest function of education includes preparing for a career by getting good grades, graduation and finding good job. The second type of function is "latent functions", where a social pattern results in an unrecognized or unintended consequence. The latent functions of education include meeting new people, extra-curricular activities, school trips. Another type of social function is "social dysfunction" which is any undesirable consequences that disrupts the operation of society. The social dysfunction of education includes not getting good grades, a job. Merton states that by recognizing and examining the dysfunctional aspects of society we can explain the development and persistence of alternatives. Thus, as Holmwood states, "Merton explicitly made power and conflict central issues for research within a functionalist paradigm."


title: Structural functionalism

text: Merton also noted that there may be functional alternatives to the institutions and structures currently fulfilling the functions of society. This means that the institutions that currently exist are not indispensable to society. Merton states "just as the same item may have multiple functions, so may the same function be diversely fulfilled by alternative items." This notion of functional alternatives is important because it reduces the tendency of functionalism to imply approval of the status quo.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Merton's theory of deviance is derived from Durkheim's idea of anomie. It is central in explaining how internal changes can occur in a system. For Merton, anomie means a discontinuity between cultural goals and the accepted methods available for reaching them.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Thus it can be seen that change can occur internally in society through either innovation or rebellion. It is true that society will attempt to control these individuals and negate the changes, but as the innovation or rebellion builds momentum, society will eventually adapt or face dissolution.


title: Structural functionalism

text: In the 1970s, political scientists Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell introduced a structural-functionalist approach to comparing political systems. They argued that, in order to understand a political system, it is necessary to understand not only its institutions (or structures) but also their respective functions. They also insisted that these institutions, to be properly understood, must be placed in a meaningful and dynamic historical context.


title: Structural functionalism

text: This idea stood in marked contrast to prevalent approaches in the field of comparative politics—the state-society theory and the dependency theory. These were the descendants of David Easton's system theory in international relations, a mechanistic view that saw all political systems as essentially the same, subject to the same laws of "stimulus and response"—or inputs and outputs—while paying little attention to unique characteristics. The structural-functional approach is based on the view that a political system is made up of several key components, including interest groups, political parties and branches of government.


title: Structural functionalism

text: In addition to structures, Almond and Powell showed that a political system consists of various functions, chief among them political socialization, recruitment and communication: socialization refers to the way in which societies pass along their values and beliefs to succeeding generations, and in political terms describe the process by which a society inculcates civic virtues, or the habits of effective citizenship; recruitment denotes the process by which a political system generates interest, engagement and participation from citizens; and communication refers to the way that a system promulgates its values and information.


title: Structural functionalism

text: In their attempt to explain the social stability of African "primitive" stateless societies where they undertook their fieldwork, Evans-Pritchard (1940) and Meyer Fortes (1945) argued that the Tallensi and the Nuer were primarily organized around unilineal descent groups. Such groups are characterized by common purposes, such as administering property or defending against attacks; they form a permanent social structure that persists well beyond the lifespan of their members. In the case of the Tallensi and the Nuer, these corporate groups were based on kinship which in turn fitted into the larger structures of unilineal descent; consequently Evans-Pritchard's and Fortes' model is called "descent theory". Moreover, in this African context territorial divisions were aligned with lineages; descent theory therefore synthesized both blood and soil as the same. Affinal ties with the parent through whom descent is not reckoned, however, are considered to be merely complementary or secondary (Fortes created the concept of "complementary filiation"), with the reckoning of kinship through descent being considered the primary organizing force of social systems. Because of its strong emphasis on unilineal descent, this new kinship theory came to be called "descent theory".


title: Structural functionalism

text: With no delay, descent theory had found its critics. Many African tribal societies seemed to fit this neat model rather well, although Africanists, such as Paul Richards, also argued that Fortes and Evans-Pritchard had deliberately downplayed internal contradictions and overemphasized the stability of the local lineage systems and their significance for the organization of society. However, in many Asian settings the problems were even more obvious. In Papua New Guinea, the local patrilineal descent groups were fragmented and contained large amounts of non-agnates. Status distinctions did not depend on descent, and genealogies were too short to account for social solidarity through identification with a common ancestor. In particular, the phenomenon of cognatic (or bilateral) kinship posed a serious problem to the proposition that descent groups are the primary element behind the social structures of "primitive" societies.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Leach's (1966) critique came in the form of the classical Malinowskian argument, pointing out that "in Evans-Pritchard's studies of the Nuer and also in Fortes's studies of the Tallensi unilineal descent turns out to be largely an ideal concept to which the empirical facts are only adapted by means of fictions". People's self-interest, manoeuvring, manipulation and competition had been ignored. Moreover, descent theory neglected the significance of marriage and affinal ties, which were emphasized by Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology, at the expense of overemphasizing the role of descent. To quote Leach: "The evident importance attached to matrilateral and affinal kinship connections is not so much explained as explained away."


title: Structural functionalism

text: Structural functionalism reached the peak of its influence in the 1940s and 1950s, and by the 1960s was in rapid decline. By the 1980s, its place was taken in Europe by more conflict-oriented approaches, and more recently by structuralism. While some of the critical approaches also gained popularity in the United States, the mainstream of the discipline has instead shifted to a myriad of empirically oriented middle-range theories with no overarching theoretical orientation. To most sociologists, functionalism is now "as dead as a dodo".


title: Structural functionalism

text: As the influence of functionalism in the 1960s began to wane, the linguistic and cultural turns led to a myriad of new movements in the social sciences: "According to Giddens, the orthodox consensus terminated in the late 1960s and 1970s as the middle ground shared by otherwise competing perspectives gave way and was replaced by a baffling variety of competing perspectives. This third generation of social theory includes phenomenologically inspired approaches, critical theory, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, structuralism, post-structuralism, and theories written in the tradition of hermeneutics and ordinary language philosophy."


title: Structural functionalism

text: While absent from empirical sociology, functionalist themes remained detectable in sociological theory, most notably in the works of Luhmann and Giddens. There are, however, signs of an incipient revival, as functionalist claims have recently been bolstered by developments in multilevel selection theory and in empirical research on how groups solve social dilemmas. Recent developments in evolutionary theory—especially by biologist David Sloan Wilson and anthropologists Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson—have provided strong support for structural functionalism in the form of multilevel selection theory. In this theory, culture and social structure are seen as a Darwinian (biological or cultural) adaptation at the group level.


title: Structural functionalism

text: In the 1960s, functionalism was criticized for being unable to account for social change, or for structural contradictions and conflict (and thus was often called "consensus theory"). Also, it ignores inequalities including race, gender, class, which cause tension and conflict. The refutation of the second criticism of functionalism, that it is static and has no concept of change, has already been articulated above, concluding that while Parsons' theory allows for change, it is an orderly process of change [Parsons, 1961:38], a moving equilibrium. Therefore, referring to Parsons' theory of society as static is inaccurate. It is true that it does place emphasis on equilibrium and the maintenance or quick return to social order, but this is a product of the time in which Parsons was writing (post-World War II, and the start of the cold war). Society was in upheaval and fear abounded. At the time social order was crucial, and this is reflected in Parsons' tendency to promote equilibrium and social order rather than social change.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Furthermore, Durkheim favoured a radical form of guild socialism along with functionalist explanations. Also, Marxism, while acknowledging social contradictions, still uses functionalist explanations. Parsons' evolutionary theory describes the differentiation and reintegration systems and subsystems and thus at least temporary conflict before reintegration ("ibid"). "The fact that functional analysis can be seen by some as inherently conservative and by others as inherently radical suggests that it may be "inherently" neither one nor the other."


title: Structural functionalism

text: Stronger criticisms include the epistemological argument that functionalism is tautologous, that is it attempts to account for the development of social institutions solely through recourse to the effects that are attributed to them and thereby explains the two circularly. However, Parsons drew directly on many of Durkheim's concepts in creating his theory. Certainly Durkheim was one of the first theorists to explain a phenomenon with reference to the function it served for society. He said, "the determination of function is…necessary for the complete explanation of the phenomena." However Durkheim made a clear distinction between historical and functional analysis, saying, "When ... the explanation of a social phenomenon is undertaken, we must seek separately the efficient cause which produces it and the function it fulfills." If Durkheim made this distinction, then it is unlikely that Parsons did not. However Merton does explicitly state that functional analysis does not seek to explain why the action happened in the first instance, but why it continues or is reproduced. By this particular logic, it can be argued that functionalists do not necessarily explain the original cause of a phenomenon with reference to its effect. Yet the logic stated in reverse, that social phenomena are (re)produced because they serve ends, is unoriginal to functionalist thought. Thus functionalism is either undefinable or it can be defined by the teleological arguments which functionalist theorists normatively produced before Merton.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Another criticism describes the ontological argument that society cannot have "needs" as a human being does, and even if society does have needs they need not be met. Anthony Giddens argues that functionalist explanations may all be rewritten as historical accounts of individual human actions and consequences (see Structuration).


title: Structural functionalism

text: A further criticism directed at functionalism is that it contains no sense of agency, that individuals are seen as puppets, acting as their role requires. Yet Holmwood states that the most sophisticated forms of functionalism are based on "a highly developed concept of action," and as was explained above, Parsons took as his starting point the individual and their actions. His theory did not however articulate how these actors exercise their agency in opposition to the socialization and inculcation of accepted norms. As has been shown above, Merton addressed this limitation through his concept of deviance, and so it can be seen that functionalism allows for agency. It cannot, however, explain why individuals choose to accept or reject the accepted norms, why and in what circumstances they choose to exercise their agency, and this does remain a considerable limitation of the theory.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Further criticisms have been levelled at functionalism by proponents of other social theories, particularly conflict theorists, Marxists, feminists and postmodernists. Conflict theorists criticized functionalism's concept of systems as giving far too much weight to integration and consensus, and neglecting independence and conflict. Lockwood, in line with conflict theory, suggested that Parsons' theory missed the concept of system contradiction. He did not account for those parts of the system that might have tendencies to mal-integration. According to Lockwood, it was these tendencies that come to the surface as opposition and conflict among actors. However Parsons thought that the issues of conflict and cooperation were very much intertwined and sought to account for both in his model. In this however he was limited by his analysis of an ‘ideal type' of society which was characterized by consensus. Merton, through his critique of functional unity, introduced into functionalism an explicit analysis of tension and conflict. Yet Merton's functionalist explanations of social phenomena continued to rest on the idea that society is primarily co-operative rather than conflicted, which differentiates Merton from conflict theorists.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Marxism, which was revived soon after the emergence of conflict theory, criticized professional sociology (functionalism and conflict theory alike) for being partisan to advanced welfare capitalism. Gouldner thought that Parsons' theory specifically was an expression of the dominant interests of welfare capitalism, that it justified institutions with reference to the function they fulfill for society. It may be that Parsons' work implied or articulated that certain institutions were necessary to fulfill the functional prerequisites of society, but whether or not this is the case, Merton explicitly states that institutions are not indispensable and that there are functional alternatives. That he does not identify any alternatives to the current institutions does reflect a conservative bias, which as has been stated before is a product of the specific time that he was writing in.


title: Structural functionalism

text: As functionalism's prominence was ending, feminism was on the rise, and it attempted a radical criticism of functionalism. It believed that functionalism neglected the suppression of women within the family structure. Holmwood shows, however, that Parsons did in fact describe the situations where tensions and conflict existed or were about to take place, even if he did not articulate those conflicts. Some feminists agree, suggesting that Parsons provided accurate descriptions of these situations. On the other hand, Parsons recognized that he had oversimplified his functional analysis of women in relation to work and the family, and focused on the positive functions of the family for society and not on its dysfunctions for women. Merton, too, although addressing situations where function and dysfunction occurred simultaneously, lacked a "feminist sensibility".


title: Structural functionalism

text: Postmodernism, as a theory, is critical of claims of objectivity. Therefore, the idea of grand theory and grand narrative that can explain society in all its forms is treated with skepticism. This critique focuses on exposing the danger that grand theory can pose when not seen as a limited perspective, as one way of understanding society.


title: Structural functionalism

text: Jeffrey Alexander (1985) sees functionalism as a broad school rather than a specific method or system, such as Parsons, who is capable of taking equilibrium (stability) as a reference-point rather than assumption and treats structural differentiation as a major form of social change. The name 'functionalism' implies a difference of method or interpretation that does not exist. This removes the determinism criticized above. Cohen argues that rather than needs a society has dispositional facts: features of the social environment that support the existence of particular social institutions but do not cause them.


title: Pamela Smart

text: Pamela Ann Smart (née Wojas; born August 16, 1967) is an American woman who was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering. In 1990, at age 22, Smart conspired with her underaged sex partner, then 15-year-old William "Billy" Flynn, and three of his friends to have her 24-year-old husband Greggory Smart murdered in Derry, New Hampshire. She is currently serving a life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a maximum security prison in Westchester County, New York.


title: Pamela Smart

text: Pamela Smart was born Pamela Wojas in Windham, New Hampshire, on August 16, 1967, the daughter of John and Linda Wojas. She grew up in Miami, Florida, before her family moved to Derry, New Hampshire, when she was in the eighth grade. Pamela attended secondary school at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, where she was a cheerleader, and graduated from Florida State University (FSU) with a degree in communications. At FSU, she had been the host of a college radio program.


title: Pamela Smart

text: Pamela met Greggory Smart while she visited New Hampshire over Christmas break in 1986. They formed a serious relationship in February 1987 and married two years later, with Greggory moving to Florida to live with Pamela during her senior year at FSU. The couple shared a passion for heavy metal music. However, seven months into their marriage, they began having difficulties in their relationship. Pamela took a job as a media coordinator at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire, where she met high school sophomore William "Billy" Flynn at Project Self-Esteem, a local drug awareness program at Winnacunnet High where both were volunteers. They bonded over their mutual interest in heavy metal. Pamela also met another intern named Cecelia Pierce, who was friends with Flynn.


title: Pamela Smart

text: On May 1, 1990, Pamela Smart came home from a meeting at work to find her condominium ransacked and her husband Greggory murdered. Police officials said the crime scene looked like a disrupted burglary. Smart was later accused of seducing 15-year-old Flynn and threatening to stop having sex with him unless he killed her husband. Flynn did so with the help of friends Patrick "Pete" Randall, Vance "J.R." Lattime, Jr., and Raymond Fowler.


title: Pamela Smart

text: During the investigation, Lattime's father brought a .38 caliber pistol he had found in his house to the police, believing it might have been the murder weapon. On May 14, an anonymous tip also indicated that Smart's friend Cecelia Pierce was aware of the plan. Police talked to Pierce, who agreed to wear a wire and record conversations with Smart in hopes that she would say something incriminating, which she did.


title: Pamela Smart

text: On August 1, 1990, Detective Daniel Pelletier approached Smart in her school's parking lot. Smart recognized him, having spoken to him on at least six other occasions. Taken by surprise, she asked, "What's up?" "Well, Pam," Pelletier said in the recording, "I have some good news and I have some bad news. The good news is that we've solved the murder of your husband. The bad news is you're under arrest." "What for?" Smart asked. "First-degree murder." Smart was then handcuffed and arraigned at the Derry District Court and jailed at the New Hampshire State Prison for Women, which was in Goffstown at the time.


title: Pamela Smart

text: Smart's trial was widely watched and garnered considerable media attention, partly because it was one of the first in the U.S. to allow TV cameras in the courtroom. She faced life in prison if convicted. The prosecution's case relied heavily on testimony from Smart's teenaged co-conspirators, who had secured their own plea bargains before her trial began.


title: Pamela Smart

text: When oral arguments began March 4, 1991, Assistant Attorney General Diane Nicolosi portrayed the teenagers as naïve victims of an "evil woman bent on murder." The prosecution portrayed Pamela Smart as the cold-blooded mastermind who controlled her underaged sex partner. Nicolosi claimed that Smart seduced Flynn to get him to murder her husband, so that she could avoid an expensive divorce and benefit from a $140,000 life insurance policy. In her testimony, Smart acknowledged that she had what she termed an "affair" with the underaged boy, but claimed that the murder of her husband was solely the doing of Flynn and his friends as a reaction to her telling Flynn that she wished to end their "relationship" and repair her marriage. She insisted that she neither participated in the murder plot nor had any foreknowledge of it. Though Flynn claimed he had fallen in love with Smart when he first met her, Cecelia Pierce testified at trial that Smart and Flynn were originally just friends. Pierce first noticed a change about February, when Smart confessed to her that she "loved Bill." Flynn testified at trial that he was a virgin before he had sex with Pamela Smart.


title: Pamela Smart

text: After a 14-day trial that culminated on March 22, 1991, in the Rockingham County Superior Court, Smart was found guilty of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering. The tampering stemmed from Pamela's coercing Cecelia not to say anything to authorities or to lie. The conviction was largely the result of the testimony of her co-conspirators and secretly taped conversations in which Smart appeared to contradict her claims of having wanted to reconcile with her husband and of having no knowledge of the boys' plot. She could have been charged with capital murder, but the prosecution decided against it. Later that day, she was given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility for parole.


title: Pamela Smart

text: Smart argued that the media had influenced her trial and conviction, as she explained in the 2014 HBO documentary "".


title: Pamela Smart

text: Smart is serving her life sentence at the maximum-security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County, New York, where she was transferred in 1993 from the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Goffstown. At the time, New Hampshire officials said the transfer was for unspecified "security reasons." Co-defendants William Flynn and Patrick Randall were also transferred out-of-state, in both cases to the Maine State Prison in Warren, Maine.


title: Pamela Smart

text: The specific reasons for Smart's transfer are unclear. In 2007, a senior assistant in the state attorney general's office told the "Keene State Equinox" that Smart was transferred due to discipline problems. While she had accrued 22 disciplinary reports, all but two of them were for minor offenses. Deputy Compact Administrator Denise Heath claimed that at the time, there were fears that the State Prison for Women was not suitable for a high-profile inmate like Smart, and that it would be too easy for someone to break her out. However, New Hampshire has never had a formal transfer agreement with New York; Heath believed the transfer was a "commissioner to commissioner" arrangement. Smart's family maintains they were never informed of the transfer.