title: European Central Bank

text: In addition to capital subscriptions, the NCBs of the member states participating in the euro area provided the ECB with foreign reserve assets equivalent to around €40 billion. The contributions of each NCB is in proportion to its share in the ECB's subscribed capital, while in return each NCB is credited by the ECB with a claim in euro equivalent to its contribution. 15% of the contributions was made in gold, and the remaining 85% in US dollars and UK pound Sterlings.


title: European Central Bank

text: The internal working language of the ECB is English, and press conferences are held in English. External communications are handled flexibly: English is preferred (though not exclusively) for communication within the ESCB (i.e. with other central banks) and with financial markets; communication with other national bodies and with EU citizens is normally in their respective language, but the ECB website is predominantly English; official documents such as the Annual Report are in the official languages of the EU (generally English, German and French).


title: European Central Bank

text: In 2022, the ECB publishes for the first time details on the nationality of its staff, revealing an over-representation of Germans and Italians along the ECB employees, including in management positions.


title: European Central Bank

text: The European Central Bank (and by extension, the Eurosystem) is often considered as the "most independent central bank in the world". In general terms, this means that the Eurosystem tasks and policies can be discussed, designed, decided and implemented in full autonomy, without pressure or need for instructions from any external body. The main justification for the ECB's independence is that such an institutional setup assists the maintenance of price stability.


title: European Central Bank

text: In return to its high degree of independence and discretion, the ECB is accountable to the European Parliament (and to a lesser extent to the European Court of Auditors, the European Ombudsman and the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)). Although no interinstitutional agreement exists between the European Parliament and the ECB to regulate the ECB's accountability framework, it has been inspired by a resolution of the European Parliament adopted in 1998 which was then informally agreed with the ECB and incorporated into the Parliament's rule of procedure. In 2021, the European Parliament's ECON Committee requested to start negotiations with the ECB in order to formalize and improve these accountability arrangements.


title: European Central Bank

text: In 2013, an interinstitutional agreement was reached between the ECB and the European Parliament in the context of the establishment of the ECB's Banking Supervision. This agreement sets broader powers to the European Parliament than the established practice on the monetary policy side of the ECB's activities. For example, under the agreement, the Parliament can veto the appointment of the chair and vice-chair of the ECB's supervisory board, and may approve removals if requested by the ECB.


title: European Central Bank

text: In addition to its independence, the ECB is subject to limited transparency obligations in contrast to EU Institutions standards and other major central banks. Indeed, as pointed out by Transparency International, "The Treaties establish transparency and openness as principles of the EU and its institutions. They do, however, grant the ECB a partial exemption from these principles. According to Art. 15(3) TFEU, the ECB is bound by the EU’s transparency principles "only when exercising [its] administrative tasks" (the exemption – which leaves the term "administrative tasks" undefined – equally applies to the Court of Justice of the European Union and to the European Investment Bank)."


title: European Central Bank

text: In practice, there are several concrete examples where the ECB is less transparent than other institutions:


title: European Central Bank

text: The bank is based in Ostend (East End), Frankfurt am Main. The city is the largest financial centre in the Eurozone and the bank's location in it is fixed by the Amsterdam Treaty. The bank moved to a new purpose-built headquarters in 2014, designed by a Vienna-based architectural office, Coop Himmelbau. The building is approximately tall and is to be accompanied by other secondary buildings on a landscaped site on the site of the former wholesale market in the eastern part of Frankfurt am Main. The main construction on a 120,000 m total site area began in October 2008, and it was expected that the building would become an architectural symbol for Europe. While it was designed to accommodate double the number of staff who operated in the former Eurotower, that building has been retained by the ECB, owing to more space being required since it took responsibility for banking supervision.


title: European Central Bank

text: The debate on the independence of the ECB finds its origins in the preparatory stages of the construction of the EMU. The German government agreed to go ahead if certain crucial guarantees were respected, such as a European Central Bank independent of national governments and shielded from political pressure along the lines of the German central bank. The French government, for its part, feared that this independence would mean that politicians would no longer have any room for manoeuvre in the process. A compromise was then reached by establishing a regular dialogue between the ECB and the Council of Finance Ministers of the euro area, the Eurogroupe.


title: European Central Bank

text: There is strong consensus among economists on the value of central bank independence from politics. The rationale behind are both empirical and theoretical. On the theoretical side, it's believed that time inconsistency suggest the existence of political business cycles where elected officials might take advantage of policy surprises to secure reelection. The politician up to election will therefore be incentivized to introduce expansionary monetary policies, reducing unemployment in the short run. These effects will be most likely temporary. By contrast, in the long run it will increase inflation, with unemployment returning to the natural rate negating the positive effect. Furthermore, the credibility of the central bank will deteriorate, making it more difficult to answer the market. Additionally, empirical work has been done that defined and measured central bank independence (CBI), looking at the relationship of CBI with inflation.


title: European Central Bank

text: Demystify the independence of central bankers :According to Christopher Adolph (2009), the alleged neutrality of central bankers is only a legal façade and not an indisputable fact . To achieve this, the author analyses the professional careers of central bankers and mirrors them with their respective monetary decision-making. To explain the results of his analysis, he utilizes he uses the ""principal-agent"" theory. To explain that in order to create a new entity, one needs a delegator or "principal" (in this case the heads of state or government of the euro area) and a delegate or "agent" (in this case the ECB). In his illustration, he describes the financial community as a ""shadow principale""  which influences the choice of central bankers thus indicating that the central banks indeed act as interfaces between the financial world and the States. It is therefore not surprising, still according to the author, to regain their influence and preferences in the appointment of central bankers, presumed conservative, neutral and impartial according to the model of the Independent Central Bank (ICB), which eliminates this famous ""temporal inconsistency"". Central bankers had a professional life before joining the central bank and their careers will most likely continue after their tenure. They are ultimately human beings. Therefore, for the author, central bankers have interests of their own, based on their past careers and their expectations after joining the ECB, and try to send messages to their future potential employers.


title: European Central Bank

text: – "Its participation in the troika" : Thanks to its three factors which explains its independence, the ECB took advantage of this crisis to implement, through its participation in the troika, the famous structural reforms in the Member States aimed at making, more flexible the various markets, particularly the labour market, which are still considered too rigid under the ordoliberal concept.


title: European Central Bank

text: - "Macro-prudential supervision" : At the same time, taking advantage of the reform of the financial supervision system, the Frankfurt Bank has acquired new responsibilities, such as macro-prudential supervision, in other words, supervision of the provision of financial services.


title: European Central Bank

text: -"Take liberties with its mandate to save the Euro" : Paradoxically, the crisis undermined the ECB's ordoliberal discourse "because some of its instruments, which it had to implement, deviated significantly from its principles. It then interpreted the paradigm with enough flexibly to adapt its original reputation to these new economic conditions. It was forced to do so as a last resort to save its one and only raison d'être: the euro. This Independent was thus obliged to be pragmatic by departing from the spirit of its statutes, which is unacceptable to the hardest supporters of ordoliberalism, which will lead to the resignation of the two German leaders present within the ECB: the governor of the Bundesbank, Jens WEIDMANN and the member of the executive board of the ECB, Jürgen STARK.


title: European Central Bank

text: – "Regulation of the financial system" :  The delegation of this new function to the ECB was carried out with great simplicity and with the consent of European leaders, because neither the Commission nor the Member States really wanted to obtain the monitoring of financial abuses throughout the area. In other words, in the event of a new financial crisis, the ECB would be the perfect scapegoat.


title: European Central Bank

text: - "Capturing exchange rate policy" : The event that will most mark the definitive politicization of the ECB is, of course, the operation launched in January 2015: the quantitative easing (QE) operation. Indeed, the Euro is an overvalued currency on the world markets against the dollar and the Euro zone is at risk of deflation. In addition, Member States find themselves heavily indebted, partly due to the rescue of their national banks. The ECB, as the guardian of the stability of the euro zone, is deciding to gradually buy back more than EUR 1 100 billion Member States' public debt. In this way, money is injected back into the economy, the euro depreciates significantly, prices rise, the risk of deflation is removed, and Member States reduce their debts. However, the ECB has just given itself the right to direct the exchange rate policy of the euro zone without this being granted by the Treaties or with the approval of European leaders, and without public opinion or the public arena being aware of this.


title: European Central Bank

text: In conclusion, for those in favour of a framework for ECB independence, there is a clear concentration of powers. In the light of these facts, it is clear that the ECB is no longer the simple guardian of monetary stability in the euro area, but has become, over the course of the crisis, a ""multi-competent economic player, at ease in this role that no one, especially not the agnostic governments of the euro Member States, seems to have the idea of challenging"". This new political super-actor, having captured many spheres of competence and a very strong influence in the economic field in the broad sense (economy, finance, budget...).  This new political super-actor can no longer act alone and refuse a counter-power, consubstantial to our liberal democracies. Indeed, the status of independence which the ECB enjoys by essence should not exempt it from a real responsibility regarding the democratic process.


title: European Central Bank

text: In the aftermath of the euro area crisis, several proposals for a countervailing power were put forward, to deal with criticisms of a democratic deficit. For the German economist German Issing (2001) the ECB as a democratic responsibility and should be more transparent. According to him, this transparence could bring several advantages as the improvement of the efficiency and of the credibility by giving to the public adequate information. Others think that the ECB should have a closer relationship with the European Parliament which could play a major role in the evaluation of the democratic responsibility of the ECB. The development of new institutions or the creation of a minister is another solution proposed:


title: European Central Bank

text: The idea of a eurozone finance minister is regularly raised and supported by certain political figures, including Emmanuel Macron, as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former President of the ECB Jean-Claude Trichet and former European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. For the latter, this position would bring ""more democratic legitimacy"" and ""more efficiency"" to European politics. In his view, it is a question of merging the powers of Commissioner for the Economy and Finance with those of the President of the Eurogroup.


title: European Central Bank

text: The main task of this minister would be to "represent a strong political authority protecting the economic and budgetary interests of the euro area as a whole, and not the interests of individual Member States". According to the Jacques Delors Institute, its competences could be as follows:


title: European Central Bank

text: For Jean-Claude Trichet, this minister could also rely on the Eurogroup working group for the preparation and follow-up of meetings in euro zone format, and on the Economic and Financial Committee for meetings concerning all Member States. He would also have under his authority a General Secretariat of the Treasury of the euro area, whose tasks would be determined by the objectives of the budgetary union currently being set up


title: European Central Bank

text: This proposal was nevertheless rejected in 2017 by the Eurogroup, its president, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, spoke of the importance of this institution in relation to the European Commission.


title: European Central Bank

text: The absence of democratic institutions such as a Parliament or a real government is a regular criticism of the ECB in its management of the euro area, and many proposals have been made in this respect, particularly after the economic crisis, which would have shown the need to improve the governance of the euro area. For Moïse Sidiropoulos, a professor in economy: "The crisis in the euro zone came as no surprise, because the euro remains an unfinished currency, a stateless currency with a fragile political legitimacy".


title: European Central Bank

text: French economist Thomas Piketty wrote on his blog in 2017 that it was essential to equip the euro zone with democratic institutions. An economic government could for example enable it to have a common budget, common taxes and borrowing and investment capacities. Such a government would then make the euro area more democratic and transparent by avoiding the opacity of a council such as the Eurogroup.


title: European Central Bank

text: Nevertheless, according to him ""there is no point in talking about a government of the euro zone if we do not say to which democratic body this government will be accountable"", a real parliament of the euro zone to which a finance minister would be accountable seems to be the real priority for the economist, who also denounces the lack of action in this area.


title: European Central Bank

text: The creation of a sub-committee within the current European Parliament was also mentioned, on the model of the Eurogroup, which is currently an under-formation of the ECOFIN Committee. This would require a simple amendment to the rules of procedure and would avoid a competitive situation between two separate parliamentary assemblies. The former President of the European Commission had, moreover, stated on this subject that he had "no sympathy for the idea of a specific Eurozone Parliament".


title: Marguerite de Carrouges

text: Marguerite de Carrouges (née de Thibouville; 1362, Château de Fontaine-la-Soret (Eure) – c. 1419) was a French noblewoman.


title: Marguerite de Carrouges

text: She was the only daughter of Jeanne de Bois Héroult and the highly controversial Robert de Thibouville, a Norman lord who had twice sided against the French king in territorial conflicts. By the union of Marguerite and Carrouges, de Thibouville hoped to restore his family's status while Carrouges was hoping for an heir from the young Marguerite, whom contemporaries described as "young, noble, wealthy, and also very beautiful".


title: Marguerite de Carrouges

text: Shortly after his marriage, Carrouges revealed another motive for the union. The valuable estate of Aunou-le-Faucon, given to his rival Jacques Le Gris two years earlier, had been formerly owned by Carrouges' father-in-law, Robert de Thibouville, and had been bought by Count Pierre II of Alençon for 8,000 French livres in 1377. Carrouges immediately began a lawsuit to recover the land-based on an assumed prior claim to it. The case dragged on for some months until ultimately Count Pierre was forced to visit his cousin King Charles VI to officially confirm his ownership of the land and his right to give it to whomever of the followers he chose. The lawsuit reflected very poorly on Carrouges at the court in Argentan and resulted in his further estrangement from Count Pierre's circle.


title: Marguerite de Carrouges

text: Marguerite de Carrouges accused Jacques Le Gris of rape, leading to one of the last judicial duels permitted by the French king and the Parliament of Paris (the actual last duel occurred in 1547 opposing Guy Chabot de Jarnac against François de Vivonne). The combat was decreed on December 29, 1386 in Paris.


title: Marguerite de Carrouges

text: The story of the duel inspired Ridley Scott's 2021 film "The Last Duel" based on the 2004 book "" by Eric Jager in which she was played by Jodie Comer.


title: Trina

text: Katrina Laverne Taylor (born December 3, 1978), known professionally as Trina, is an American rapper. She rose to prominence in 1998 with her appearance on the Trick Daddy single "Nann Nigga".


title: Trina

text: Trina has been described by "XXL" as "the most consistent female rapper of all time". In 2013, "Complex" ranked her single "Pull Over" No. 27 in their Top 50 Best Rap Songs by Women. In 2014, Trina was included in "Billboard"s list of the "31 Female Rappers Who Changed Hip-Hop".


title: Trina

text: Katrina Laverne Taylor was born on December 3, 1978, in Miami, Florida. She grew up in the Liberty City area of Miami, Florida. Her father is Dominican, while her mother, Vernessa Taylor, was Bahamian. They separated when Trina was a child. She attended Miami Northwestern Senior High School, where she was a majorette, and where she graduated from in 1992. Taylor initially educated herself towards becoming a real estate agent, before switching her career path to music.


title: Trina

text: Trina's brother, Wilbrent Bain Jr., was murdered in a shooting in 2013. Her mother, Vernessa Taylor, died at age 62 after a struggle with cancer in September 2019. In July 2022, Trina's niece was killed.


title: Trina

text: In 1998, Trina was studying to get her real estate license, when she caught the attention of Miami rapper Trick Daddy, who asked her to appear on his track "Nann Nigga". The song was released as the lead single from Trick's second studio album, "www.thug.com" on July 14, 1998, reaching No. 62 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Rap Songs chart. This kickstarted Trina's rap career, leading to a record deal with Slip-n-Slide Records with distribution from Atlantic Records.


title: Trina

text: On March 21, 2000, Trina released her debut album "Da Baddest Bitch", which debuted at No. 33 on the US "Billboard" 200 and No. 11 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It stayed on the "Billboard" 200 chart for 39 weeks and on the Hip-Hop/R&B album chart for 49 consecutive weeks and was certified Gold by the RIAA by November of that year. The album was preceded by the singles "Da Baddest Bitch" on December 22, 1999, and "Pull Over" on February 13, 2000, which reached No. 93 on the Hot 100, No. 46 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and No. 41 on the Rap Songs chart.


title: Trina

text: Trina began working on her second album in 2001 with Missy Elliott, enjoying more creative control than ever before, saying in interviews that the album was "more what Trina's about, how Trina looks, how Trina feels, the things that Trina consists of." During this time, she started her own record label imprint, Diva Enterprises. In September 2002, she signed 9-year-old recording artist Lil' Brianna, who would appear on her track "Kandi" and later be known as Brianna Perry.


title: Trina

text: On August 27, 2002, Trina released her second album "Diamond Princess", which debut at No. 14 on the "Billboard" 200 and No. 5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, selling 67,000 units in its first week. The album was preceded by "Told Y'all", featuring Rick Ross, which reached No. 64 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and appeared on the soundtrack to the action comedy "All About the Benjamins", and "No Panties", featuring Tweet, which reached No. 88 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart. On October 22, 2002, Trina released the album's third and final single, "B R Right", featuring Ludacris, which reached No. 83 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, No. 50 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and No. 24 on the Rap Songs chart.


title: Trina

text: On October 4, 2005, Trina released her third studio album, "Glamorest Life", which debut at No. 11 on the "Billboard" 200, No. 2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and No. 2 on the Top Rap Albums chart, selling 77,000 units in its first week. The album was preceded by the single, "Don't Trip", featuring Lil Wayne on April 28, 2005, which reached No. 74 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and "Here We Go", featuring Kelly Rowland, on September 23, 2005, which became one of Trina's most successful singles, reaching No. 17 on the Hot 100, No. 8 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and No. 3 on the Hot Rap Songs chart and Top 20 in most countries worldwide. The single was certified Gold in the US in June 2006. The album's third and final single, "Da Club", featuring Mannie Fresh, was released on November 22, 2005.


title: Trina

text: On May 18, 2007, it was announced that Trina had left Atlantic Records and signed to EMI in conjunction with her original label, Slip-n-Slide Records.


title: Trina

text: On April 1, 2008, Trina released her fourth studio album, "Still da Baddest", which reached No. 6 on the "Billboard" 200, No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums chart, becoming her first album to top the charts. Its first-week sales were 47,000. The album was preceded by the singles "Single Again", which reached No. 25 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100, No. 59 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and No. 19 on the Rap Songs chart, and "I Got a Thang for You", featuring Keyshia Cole, which reached No. 21 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 and No. 59 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The third and final single from the album, "Look Back at Me", featuring Killer Mike, hit No. 1 in Denmark.


title: Trina

text: On May 4, 2010, Trina released her fifth studio album, "Amazin'", which debut at No. 13 on the "Billboard" 200, No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, No. 2 on the Top Rap Albums chart, and No. 1 on the "Billboard" Independent Albums chart. The album sold over 32,000 copies in its first week. The album was preceded by the singles "That's My Attitude" on August 21, 2009, "Million Dollar Girl", featuring Diddy and Keri Hilson, on January 12, 2010, which reached No. 61 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and No. 20 on the Rap Songs chart, "Always", featuring Monica, on April 20, 2010, which reached No. 42 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and "White Girl", featuring Flo Rida and Git Fresh, on June 29, 2010.


title: Trina

text: On March 28, 2011, Trina released the mixtape "Diamonds Are Forever". It was preceded by the singles "Ghetto", featuring T-Pain, "Waist So Skinny", featuring Rick Ross, and "Can I", featuring Mýa. The mixtape received 4.8 million streams in two days. During this time, Trina was preparing her sixth studio album. On November 9, 2011, Trina announced on MTV RapFix Live that she was no longer signed to Slip-N-Slide Records, the label she had been with since the beginning of her career. On December 3, 2012, Trina released the mixtape "Back 2 Business", which was preceded by the singles "Beam" featuring Gunplay and Iceberg Slimm, and "Bad Bitch", featuring Lola Monroe and Shawnna.


title: Trina

text: On December 17, 2012, Trina appeared as a co-host on the VH1 late night talk show "Tiny Tonight!" with Tiny, Tamar Braxton and Claudia Jordan.


title: Trina

text: On March 9, 2015, Trina revealed that she had signed a new imprint venture with Penalty Entertainment. Days earlier, Trina had released the promotional single "Real One" featuring Rico Love, who she said would be the executive producer of her sixth album. On July 21, 2015, Trina previewed its music video on an episode of ": Afterparty Live!" on July 21, 2015. On October 29, Wolfgang Gartner announced that his song "Turn Up", featuring Trina and Wiley, would be featured on the soundtrack for the video game "Need For Speed". On November 13, Trina released her single "Fuck Boy", along with a remix of One Direction's "Perfect", both garnered positive reviews.


title: Trina

text: On March 21, 2016, the 16th anniversary of her debut album "Da Baddest Bitch", Trina released the single "Overnight", which discusses the ups and downs of her career including lawsuits, label issues, and being underestimated. On April 1, 2016, Trina released the single "Forget That", featuring Steph Lecor, from the "Meet the Blacks" soundtrack. On July 11, Trina participated in Missy Elliott's tribute for VH1's "Hip Hop Honors: All Hail The Queens". On December 3, Trina celebrated her 38th birthday by unveiling a surprise EP, "Dynasty 6", at a private Art Basel event.


title: Trina

text: On August 25, 2017, it was announced that Trina and Trick Daddy would star in the VH1 reality television series "".


title: Trina

text: On June 21, 2019, Trina released her much-delayed sixth studio album, "The One". In a 2020 interview, Trina stated that she was working on another project that was "almost done".


title: Trina

text: Trina was in an on-again, off-again relationship with rapper Lil Wayne from 2005 to 2007. On October 5, 2005, during an interview with Wendy Williams, she confirmed that she and Wayne were engaged to be married. Trina later became pregnant by Lil Wayne, but suffered a miscarriage. The couple have matching tattoos, Trina has "Wayne" on her wrist, while Lil Wayne has "Trina" spelled out on his ring finger.


title: Trina

text: Trina dated basketball player Kenyon Martin from 2007 to 2010. He had the image of her lips tattooed on his neck. Trina dated rapper French Montana from 2012 to 2014.


title: Trina

text: Trina started the Diamond Doll Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps younger girls with their life struggles. The organization is partnered with the Florida Entertainment Summit to organize the Jingle Bell Toy Drive for children in South Florida.


title: Trina

text: Trina has received ten nominations at the BET Awards, nine of which were for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, and three nominations at the Soul Train Music Awards. She has received four Source Award nominations winning one. She has been nominated for one American Music Award. She was nominated for six awards at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards. She was nominated for one MTV Sucker Free Summit Award. She has won one Golden Trailer Award for her appearance on the film "A Miami Tail". She has won two ASCAP Awards, two BMI Awards, one Billboard Music Award, one EME Award, and one All Star Music Award.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The South China Morning Post (SCMP), with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained Hong Kong's newspaper of record since British colonial rule. Editor-in-chief Tammy Tam succeeded Wang Xiangwei in 2016. The "SCMP" prints paper editions in Hong Kong and operates an online news website.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The newspaper's circulation has been relatively stable for years—the average daily circulation stood at 100,000 in 2016. In a 2019 survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the "SCMP" was regarded relatively as the most credible paid newspaper in Hong Kong.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The "SCMP" was owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation from 1986 until it was acquired by Malaysian real estate tycoon Robert Kuok in 1993. On 5 April 2016, Alibaba Group acquired the media properties of the SCMP Group, including the "SCMP". In January 2017, former Digg CEO Gary Liu became the "SCMP"s chief executive officer.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Since the change of ownership in 2016, concerns have been raised about the paper's editorial independence and self-censorship. Critics including "The New York Times", "Der Spiegel", and "The Atlantic" have alleged that the paper is on a mission to promote China's soft power abroad.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Anti-Qing revolutionary Tse Tsan-tai and British journalist Alfred Cunningham (克寧漢) founded the "South China Morning Post" in 1903, publishing its first issue on 6 November 1903. It changed its Chinese name from "", which translates as the "South Qing Morning Post", to "" in 1913, a year after the Republic of China was founded.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The purpose of founding the "SCMP" is disputed. The "SCMP" has been described as a newspaper founded to support the reform movement in the late-Qing Empire.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Early editorials were mainly written by British journalists, such as Cunningham, Douglas Story and Thomas Petrie, while Tse attracted business to the newspaper. The editors maintained a good relationship with the Hong Kong government. In 1904, the newspaper's circulation was 300 copies.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The newspaper faced competition from three English-language newspapers: the "Hong Kong Daily Press", "China Mail", and "Hong Kong Telegraph".


title: South China Morning Post

text: After the Second World War, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) bought majority shares in the newspaper. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in November 1971, but was privatised again in 1987 after being bought by the News Corporation in 1986 for HK$2.2 billion (US$284.4 million). "SCMP" relisted in 1990.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Reading the "SCMP" has been described as a status symbol in the 20th century, when the newspaper represented the interests of Hong Kong elites and the British government. Editors of the "SCMP" attended regular meetings at the Government House for disclosures that aimed to influence public opinion and received business briefings from the HSBC.


title: South China Morning Post

text: For most of the 1990s, the "SCMP" was the world's most profitable newspaper. By 1993, the "SCMP"'s daily circulation exceeded 100,000 and posted profits of HK$586 million (US$75.6 million) from mid-1992 to mid-1993.


title: South China Morning Post

text: In September 1993, Murdoch was in negotiations to sell his 50 per cent interest in the "SCMP" as part of a scheme to increase the News Corporation's investments in the Asian electronic media industry. News Corporation then announced that it would sell 34.9 per cent stake – a controlling interest – for US$375 million to Kerry Media owned by Malaysian businessman Robert Kuok.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Kuok's son, Kuok Khoon Ean, took over as chairman at the end of 1997. Kuok Khoon Ean's sister, Kuok Hui Kwong, was named chief executive officer on 1 January 2009. Kuok launched a general offer for the remaining shares in September 2007, and increased his stake to 74 per cent at US$209 million. It was delisted in 2013 when the shares' free float fell below the required 25 per cent.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Jonathan Fenby served as editor until 1999, when he was replaced by Robert Keatley from "The Wall Street Journal", who became interim editor. Mark Landler of "The New York Times" wrote that under Fenby, the "SCMP" was "sharply critical of the Hong Kong government" and that this may have been a factor behind Fenby being replaced. The "SCMP" has had 10 editors from 2000 to 2011. Mark Clifford, editor-in-chief of "The Standard" from 2004 to 2006, was hired as editor-in-chief in February 2006. Clifford brought with him several staffers from "The Standard", including business section editor Stuart Jackson, who departed after seven turbulent months. He presided over the controversial dismissal of several journalists over an internal prank, and himself resigned with effect 1 April 2007. Following Gina Chua's short-lived tenure at the Post, from 2009 to April 2011, and deputy editor, Cliff Buddle served as acting editor-in-chief for 10 months.


title: South China Morning Post

text: , a member of the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, succeeded him in 2012. Tammy Tam, senior editor of the China section, was promoted to deputy editor under Wang. In May 2015, the "SCMP" told columnists Philip Bowring, Steve Vines, Kevin Rafferty and Frank Ching – all of whom have criticised the government in commentaries to varying degrees on different subjects over the years – that their services would no longer be needed. The manner of their dismissal generated criticism, as well as speculation as to who had instigated the removals.


title: South China Morning Post

text: During Alibaba's failed attempt at securing an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the "SCMP" published articles questioning the business practices of the platform, including incidents involving counterfeit goods.


title: South China Morning Post

text: On 11 December 2015, Alibaba Group announced that it would acquire the media assets of SCMP Group, including "SCMP", for HK$2 billion (US$266 million).


title: South China Morning Post

text: Alibaba's ownership of "SCMP" led to concerns that the newspaper would become a mouthpiece of the Central People's Government. Among the possible motives of the Alibaba acquisition was to make media coverage of China "fair and accurate" and not in the optic of Western news outlets. Alibaba said that the newspaper's editorial independence would be upheld.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Joseph Tsai, executive vice-chairman of Alibaba Group, said that the fear that Alibaba's ownership would compromise editorial independence "reflects a bias of its own, as if to say newspaper owners must espouse certain views, while those that hold opposing views are 'unfit'. In fact, that is exactly why we think the world needs a plurality of views when it comes to China coverage. China's rise as an economic power and its importance to world stability is too important for there to be a singular thesis." He also said, "Today when I see mainstream western news organisations cover China, they cover it through a very particular lens. It is through the lens that China is a communist state and everything kind of follows from that. A lot of journalists working with these western media organisations may not agree with the system of governance in China and that taints their view of coverage."


title: South China Morning Post

text: The acquisition by Alibaba was completed on 5 April 2016. The "SCMP" took down the paywall to its website.


title: South China Morning Post

text: According to a 2016 public survey conducted by the Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the "SCMP" received a credibility rating of 6.54, the highest credibility score among the various paid newspapers in Hong Kong.


title: South China Morning Post

text: In 2016, following the Alibaba acquisition, the "SCMP" removed its paywall, but in July 2020, SCMP announced that it would return to a subscription model in August 2020.


title: South China Morning Post

text: In March 2021, it was reported that the Chinese government is pressuring Alibaba to sell SCMP, due to concerns over the company's influence over public opinion in Hong Kong. Critics say this is designed to move the paper under the ownership of Chinese state-owned firm or an associated billionaire, placing it under the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In a leaked internal November 2021 memo, SCMP CEO Gary Liu denied any sale was in the works.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Since the Alibaba acquisition, the "SCMP" has discontinued several subsidiary publications, including its Chinese-language edition, the "48 HOURS" weekend magazine, and the popular "HK Magazine" alternative weekly. The "48 HOURS" staff continue to write on other "SCMP" platforms. Zach Hines, former editor-in-chief of "HK Magazine" from 2000 to 2015, said that closing the magazine is an effort to shift the focus away from Hong Kong to mainland China and target western readers. Hines wrote in the "Hong Kong Free Press" of its closure:


title: South China Morning Post

text: The "South China Morning Post" purchased us at the right time, and for sensible reasons. The media landscape was changing dramatically, as it continues to do, and their ownership bought us a few final years of life. But, like "One Country, Two Systems", this odd and uncomfortable marriage was never going to last.


title: South China Morning Post

text: To be a truly independent press, you cannot be beholden to anyone except your readers. But, to my great dismay, this is becoming an increasing impossibility in Hong Kong, in both the mainstream Chinese and much-smaller English media. SCMP is owned by Alibaba, perhaps the biggest pro-China organization in the world, if you don't count the Communist Party. The paper's business interests are also drifting away from Hong Kong, and toward readers in the United States and the rest of the west. HK Magazine is a canary in the coal mine. [...]


title: South China Morning Post

text: As this sad end to HK Magazine shows, it is clear that it is time now for someone else to step up and provide an alternative voice for Hong Kong. If you care about free speech and the liberal values that make Hong Kong what it is, say something about it. Do something about it. Support independent outlets like "Hong Kong Free Press" and FactWire. You have a voice. Use it. Or you will surely lose it.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Initially SCMP stated that the "HK Magazine" website would be deleted from the internet, but the move was criticised. The Hong Kong Journalists Association lodged an inquiry with SCMP management. Hines stated, "It is unthinkable that a newspaper of record would ever consider deleting content from its archive. The SCMP should be held to proper journalistic standards. HK Magazine was an important feature of Hong Kong's media landscape, and it must be preserved. Deleting it would be an utter travesty of journalistic principles – and a slap in the face to SCMP's readers and to Hong Kong society in general." Following the negative reaction, SCMP stated that "HK Magazine" content would be migrated to the "South China Morning Post" website before the "HK Magazine" website was deleted. Additionally, Hong Kong data scientist Mart van de Ven launched a public appeal to help archive back issues of the magazine, expressing doubt that SCMP would preserve the full archive. However, he found that he was unable to access issue 1,103, which featured Leung Chun-ying on the cover.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The paper's average audited circulation for the first half of 2007 stood at 106,054; while its Sunday edition, the "Sunday Morning Post", has a readership of 80,865. In 2012, the readership of the "SCMP" and the "Sunday Morning Post" was estimated at 396,000. Its readership outside Hong Kong remains at some 6,825 copies for the same period, again, relatively unchanged. It also had the position as the most profitable newspaper in the world on a per reader basis, profit declined since peaking in 1997 at HK$805 million. Its average audited circulation for the first half of 2015 stood at 101,652 copies, with the print edition representing 75 percent of the number of copies; the Sunday edition registered 80,779 copies on average during the same period.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The Group reported net profit of HK$338 million for the year 2006 ("2005 = HK$246m"), the operating profit of HK$419m ("2005 = HK$306m") was attributable mainly to the newspaper operation.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The selling price of the paper is HK$9 each from Monday to Saturday, and HK$10 for the "Sunday Morning Post". A discounted student subscription is also available. It was increased 14.5% (from HK$7) and 25% (from HK$8) respectively in August 2011.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The printed version of the "SCMP" is in a broadsheet format, in sections: Main, City, Sport, Business, Classifieds, Property (Wednesday), Racing (Wednesday), Technology (Tuesday), Education (Saturday), Style magazine (first Friday of every month); the Sunday edition contains Main, a Review section, a Post Magazine, Racing, "At Your Service", a services directory, and "Young Post", targeted at younger readers.


title: South China Morning Post

text: On 26 March 2007, the "SCMP" was given a facelift, with new presentation and fonts. Another redesign in 2011 changed the typefaces to Farnham and Amplitude for headlines, Utopia for text, and Freight for headers.


title: South China Morning Post

text: SCMP.com had started out as a subscription-only service, which also allows the retrieval of archive articles dating back from 1993. It was launched online in December 1996. On 30 May 2007, SCMP.com relaunched with a new look, features, and multimedia content. Headlines and the introduction to stories were now free to view, while the full articles are available to subscribers. Archive photos and articles are available for purchase.


title: South China Morning Post

text: On 16 July 2007, SCMP.com launched its first-ever viral video marketing campaign targeting a global audience and highlighting the new multimedia features of the website.


title: South China Morning Post

text: At present, "SCMP" also provides free subscription to "The South China Morning Post iPad edition" for the Apple iPad. SCMP.com launched a major redesign on 20 April 2015.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Upon having been acquired by Alibaba, the new owners announced that the paywall would be removed. The paywall was subsequently removed on the night of 4 April 2016. By doing so, "SCMP" wished to increase its readership globally and allow the global community to have access to its news of China. It vowed to better adapt to the reading habits of the readers. The news site remains blocked in mainland China as of 2018.


title: South China Morning Post

text: "SCMP" also provided a "China-focused" Chinese-language version of The Post, nanzao.com, but was shut down in 2016.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The previous owners of the publication, Kerry Group's Robert Kuok and his family, are claimed to be inclined towards the central government of the People's Republic of China, and questions were raised over the paper's editorial independence and self-censorship. The paper's editors nevertheless did assert their independence during Kuok's ownership. There have been concerns, denied by Kuok, over the forced departures, in rapid succession, of several staff and contributors who were considered critical of China's government or its supporters in Hong Kong. These included, in the mid-1990s, cartoonist Larry Feign, humour columnist Nury Vittachi, and numerous China-desk staff, namely 2000–01 editorial pages editor Danny Gittings, Beijing correspondent Jasper Becker and China pages editor Willy Lam.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Not long after Kuok's purchase of the newspaper, and after running several cartoons about the culling of human body parts from Chinese prisoners, Larry Feign was abruptly dismissed and his satirical comic strip "Lily Wong" axed in 1995. His firing was defended as "cost cutting", but was widely viewed as political self-censorship in the face of the imminent handover of Hong Kong to the PRC. In his book "North Wind", Hong Kong author Nury Vittachi documented that then editor, Jonathan Fenby, who had joined from "The Observer" of London, suppressed letters querying the disappearance of the popular strip and then busied himself writing letters to international media that had covered the Feign case defending the sacking. Vittachi explained his own departure from the journal in his book, linking it to the pressures he – and other contributors – faced from top management and editors to abstain from writing on topics that were deemed "sensitive", basically in denial of the free speech rights enshrined in the Hong Kong Basic Law and the one country, two systems policy.


title: South China Morning Post

text: In 2000, Fenby was succeeded by Robert Keatley, a former "Wall Street Journal" journalist. After the paper ran a story by Willy Lam on its front page about a delegation of Hong Kong tycoons meeting with Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party Jiang Zemin, in which it was reported that business opportunities in China were being offered as a quid pro quo for the tycoons' political support, the Chinese Liaison Office raised objections of insensitivity as well as incurring the owner's wrath. Kuok berated Keatley in his office and wrote a two-page letter, which Keatley published in the letters section of the paper. Kuok stepped down as group chairman that year.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Editorial page editor Gittings complained that in January 2001 he was told to take a "realistic" view of editorial independence and ordered not to run extracts of the Tiananmen Papers, though ultimately was allowed, after protesting "strenuously", to do so. The editor stated that there had already been sufficient coverage.


title: South China Morning Post

text: At the launch of a joint report published by the Hong Kong Journalists' Association and Article 19 in July 2001, the chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association said: "More and more newspapers self-censor themselves because they are controlled by either a businessman with close ties to Beijing, or part of a large enterprise, which has financial interests over the border."


title: South China Morning Post

text: Editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei, appointed by the owner in 2012 after consultation with the Liaison Office, was criticised for his decision to reduce the paper's coverage of the death of Li Wangyang on 7 June 2012. Wang, who had left the office for the day, reportedly returned to the paper after midnight to reverse the staff editors' decision to run a full story. The "SCMP" published a two-paragraph report inside the paper; other news media reported it prominently. A senior staff member who sought to understand the decision circulated the resulting email exchanges, that indicate he received a stern rebuff from Wang. Wang made a statement on 21 June, in which he said he understood the "huge responsibility to deliver news... [and]... the journalistic heritage we have inherited". and said that his decision not to pursue extensive coverage as the story broke was pending "more facts and details surrounding the circumstances of this case". Wang admitted that his decision on Li Wangyang was a bad one in retrospect.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Reporter Paul Mooney said that the Li Wangyang story was not an isolated incident: Wang Xiangwei has "long had a reputation as being a censor of the news…Talk to anyone on the China reporting team at the "South China Morning Post" and they'll tell you a story about how Wang has cut their stories, or asked them to do an uninteresting story that was favorable to [mainland] China." Mooney, whose contract with the paper was not renewed in May 2012 reportedly because of budgetary reasons, said he had won more journalism awards than anyone else in the news team, but that for seven months prior to his departure from the newspaper, Wang had marginalised him by blocking him from writing any China stories, and then reportedly hiring several new young reporters, many from mainland China, after he had been ousted.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Despite the reported sentiments of the owners, the "SCMP" does report on commemorations of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and ran an editorial criticising the one-child policy in 2013. The "SCMP" published an interview with Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and a member of the CCP, in which Ma defended late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's decision to crack down on pro-democracy student protests, saying it was "the most correct decision". The relevant remark was deleted not long after the article was published; the reporter responsible for the interview was suspended and later was resigned. Alibaba said that Ma had been quoted "improperly", and demanded a rectification, but the editor-in-chief refused. "The New York Times" stated that Alibaba is steering the newspaper into promoting the PRC's soft power, and several critical stories about China's current government have been rewritten in an act of self-censorship by the top editors. However, a few academics pointed out in 2013, 2016 and 2021 that there was a negative or discriminatory discourse present in "SCMP"s coverage of mainland Chinese people.


title: South China Morning Post

text: Questions were raised about the relationship between the publication and Chinese authorities after the "SCMP" was able to secure an interview with Zhao Wei, the legal assistant of human rights defender Li Heping, who was in the custody of Chinese police. The "SCMP" was able to make contact with Zhao Wei a few days after her release from prison while she was still in the custody of Chinese security forces and at a time when neither her husband nor lawyer were able to reach her. The interview quoted Zhao giving what was taken to be a telephone confession, including “I have come to realise that I have taken the wrong path... I repent for what I did. I'm now a brand new person.”


title: South China Morning Post

text: On 22 July 2017, SCMP published an article linking the family member of Li Zhanshu, to a Singaporean investor who has spent HK$4 billion in Hong Kong investment. It cited records at the Hong Kong Company Registration on their associations. The article was published both online and in print. It was removed by midnight, and a correction was issued claiming the author used unverifiable claims as the basis of the article. The columnist, Shirley Yam, subsequently resigned, noting that she stood by her article.


title: South China Morning Post

text: In 2018 the "South China Morning Post" published an interview with Gui Minhai, who was detained in China at the time. This raised concerns about the interview being fake or scripted, which caused backlash against SCMP. Magnus Fiskesjö, an associate professor at Cornell University and friend of Gui, commented that:


title: South China Morning Post

text: [...] the spectacle's producers included not just the usual propaganda arms of the regime (e.g. the Xinhua News Agency, etc.), but also the formerly independent "South China Morning Post" (SCMP) of Hong Kong. In agreeing to "interview" a torture victim in between the torture sessions, the paper gave in to pressure from China.


title: South China Morning Post

text: As a result of this incident, Fiskesjö said that "SCMP can no longer be trusted as an independent news organisation."


title: South China Morning Post

text: "SCMP" won 3 awards at the 2018 WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Media Event. The paper won 11 awards the next year in the same contest and in 2021, won 9 awards at WAN-IFRA's 20th Asian Media Awards competition.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The newspaper won a 2019 Sigma Delta Chi Award in Informational Graphics for their coverage of the 2019 Hong Kong protests. In 2020, "SCMP" won another Sigma Delta Chi award in the same category for their coverage of COVID-19.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The paper won 23 awards at the Society for News Design's 2020 Best of Digital Design competition, including 3 on articles covering the Hong Kong protests. The paper also won 4 gold medals at the 2020 Malofiej Awards, including 3 for their coverage of the Hong Kong protests.


title: South China Morning Post

text: "SCMP" was announced as the winner of the Online News Association's 2020 General Excellence in Online Journalism award for large newsrooms.


title: South China Morning Post

text: The newspaper won the grand prize at the 2020 Lorenzo Natali Media Awards for its report titled "“The ‘thin yellow line’ standing between Hong Kong police and protestors”. The paper was also awarded the 2nd prize at the 2020 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Contest in the shorts category for the same story.


title: South China Morning Post

text: "SCMP"'s piece titled "Hong Kong Protests: 100 days of protests rock Hong Kong" was an honoree at the 2020 Webby Awards for Best Individual Editorial Feature. The paper won another Webby in 2021 for its video titled "China’s Rebel City – The Hong Kong Protests".


title: South China Morning Post

text: Before the acquisition in 2016 by Alibaba, "South China Morning Post" belonged to the SCMP Group Limited, a company also involved in property investment and convenience store operation. In April 2016, the company announced that the transaction of their media businesses with Alibaba was completed. As the intellectual property rights to the name "SCMP" was also transferred, the company changed its name to "Armada Holdings Limited", then to "Great Wall Pan Asia Holdings".


title: South China Morning Post

text: Now, the current publisher for the "SCMP" is South China Morning Post Publishers Limited (still commonly known as SCMP Group)"," which currently publishes, along with the "South China Morning Post" and "Sunday Morning Post", the following newspapers, magazines and online platforms:


title: Mathematical model

text: A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are used in the natural sciences (such as physics, biology, earth science, chemistry) and engineering disciplines (such as computer science, electrical engineering), as well as in non-physical systems such as the social sciences (such as economics, psychology, sociology, political science). The use of mathematical models to solve problems in business or military operations is a large part of the field of operations research. Mathematical models are also used in music, linguistics, and


title: Mathematical model

text: A model may help to explain a system and to study the effects of different components, and to make predictions about behavior.


title: Mathematical model

text: Mathematical models can take many forms, including dynamical systems, statistical models, differential equations, or game theoretic models. These and other types of models can overlap, with a given model involving a variety of abstract structures. In general, mathematical models may include logical models. In many cases, the quality of a scientific field depends on how well the mathematical models developed on the theoretical side agree with results of repeatable experiments. Lack of agreement between theoretical mathematical models and experimental measurements often leads to important advances as better theories are developed.


title: Mathematical model

text: In business and engineering, mathematical models may be used to maximize a certain output. The system under consideration will require certain inputs. The system relating inputs to outputs depends on other variables too: decision variables, state variables, exogenous variables, and random variables.


title: Mathematical model

text: Decision variables are sometimes known as independent variables. Exogenous variables are sometimes known as parameters or constants.


title: Mathematical model

text: The variables are not independent of each other as the state variables are dependent on the decision, input, random, and exogenous variables. Furthermore, the output variables are dependent on the state of the system (represented by the state variables).


title: Mathematical model

text: Objectives and constraints of the system and its users can be represented as functions of the output variables or state variables. The objective functions will depend on the perspective of the model's user. Depending on the context, an objective function is also known as an "index of performance", as it is some measure of interest to the user. Although there is no limit to the number of objective functions and constraints a model can have, using or optimizing the model becomes more involved (computationally) as the number increases.


title: Mathematical model

text: For example, economists often apply linear algebra when using input-output models. Complicated mathematical models that have many variables may be consolidated by use of vectors where one symbol represents several variables.


title: Mathematical model

text: Mathematical modeling problems are often classified into black box or white box models, according to how much a priori information on the system is available. A black-box model is a system of which there is no a priori information available. A white-box model (also called glass box or clear box) is a system where all necessary information is available. Practically all systems are somewhere between the black-box and white-box models, so this concept is useful only as an intuitive guide for deciding which approach to take.


title: Mathematical model

text: Usually, it is preferable to use as much a priori information as possible to make the model more accurate. Therefore, the white-box models are usually considered easier, because if you have used the information correctly, then the model will behave correctly. Often the a priori information comes in forms of knowing the type of functions relating different variables. For example, if we make a model of how a medicine works in a human system, we know that usually the amount of medicine in the blood is an exponentially decaying function. But we are still left with several unknown parameters; how rapidly does the medicine amount decay, and what is the initial amount of medicine in blood? This example is therefore not a completely white-box model. These parameters have to be estimated through some means before one can use the model.


title: Mathematical model

text: In black-box models, one tries to estimate both the functional form of relations between variables and the numerical parameters in those functions. Using a priori information we could end up, for example, with a set of functions that probably could describe the system adequately. If there is no a priori information we would try to use functions as general as possible to cover all different models. An often used approach for black-box models are neural networks which usually do not make assumptions about incoming data. Alternatively, the NARMAX (Nonlinear AutoRegressive Moving Average model with eXogenous inputs) algorithms which were developed as part of nonlinear system identification can be used to select the model terms, determine the model structure, and estimate the unknown parameters in the presence of correlated and nonlinear noise. The advantage of NARMAX models compared to neural networks is that NARMAX produces models that can be written down and related to the underlying process, whereas neural networks produce an approximation that is opaque.


title: Mathematical model

text: Sometimes it is useful to incorporate subjective information into a mathematical model. This can be done based on intuition, experience, or expert opinion, or based on convenience of mathematical form. Bayesian statistics provides a theoretical framework for incorporating such subjectivity into a rigorous analysis: we specify a prior probability distribution (which can be subjective), and then update this distribution based on empirical data.


title: Mathematical model

text: An example of when such approach would be necessary is a situation in which an experimenter bends a coin slightly and tosses it once, recording whether it comes up heads, and is then given the task of predicting the probability that the next flip comes up heads. After bending the coin, the true probability that the coin will come up heads is unknown; so the experimenter would need to make a decision (perhaps by looking at the shape of the coin) about what prior distribution to use. Incorporation of such subjective information might be important to get an accurate estimate of the probability.


title: Mathematical model

text: In general, model complexity involves a trade-off between simplicity and accuracy of the model. Occam's razor is a principle particularly relevant to modeling, its essential idea being that among models with roughly equal predictive power, the simplest one is the most desirable. While added complexity usually improves the realism of a model, it can make the model difficult to understand and analyze, and can also pose computational problems, including numerical instability. Thomas Kuhn argues that as science progresses, explanations tend to become more complex before a paradigm shift offers radical simplification.


title: Mathematical model

text: For example, when modeling the flight of an aircraft, we could embed each mechanical part of the aircraft into our model and would thus acquire an almost white-box model of the system. However, the computational cost of adding such a huge amount of detail would effectively inhibit the usage of such a model. Additionally, the uncertainty would increase due to an overly complex system, because each separate part induces some amount of variance into the model. It is therefore usually appropriate to make some approximations to reduce the model to a sensible size. Engineers often can accept some approximations in order to get a more robust and simple model. For example, Newton's classical mechanics is an approximated model of the real world. Still, Newton's model is quite sufficient for most ordinary-life situations, that is, as long as particle speeds are well below the speed of light, and we study macro-particles only.


title: Mathematical model

text: Note that better accuracy does not necessarily mean a better model. Statistical models are prone to overfitting which means that a model is fitted to data too much and it has lost its ability to generalize to new events that were not observed before.


title: Mathematical model

text: Any model which is not pure white-box contains some parameters that can be used to fit the model to the system it is intended to describe. If the modeling is done by an artificial neural network or other machine learning, the optimization of parameters is called "training", while the optimization of model hyperparameters is called "tuning" and often uses cross-validation. In more conventional modeling through explicitly given mathematical functions, parameters are often determined by "curve fitting".


title: Mathematical model

text: A crucial part of the modeling process is the evaluation of whether or not a given mathematical model describes a system accurately. This question can be difficult to answer as it involves several different types of evaluation.


title: Mathematical model

text: Usually, the easiest part of model evaluation is checking whether a model fits experimental measurements or other empirical data. In models with parameters, a common approach to test this fit is to split the data into two disjoint subsets: training data and verification data. The training data are used to estimate the model parameters. An accurate model will closely match the verification data even though these data were not used to set the model's parameters. This practice is referred to as cross-validation in statistics.


title: Mathematical model

text: Defining a metric to measure distances between observed and predicted data is a useful tool for assessing model fit. In statistics, decision theory, and some economic models, a loss function plays a similar role.


title: Mathematical model

text: While it is rather straightforward to test the appropriateness of parameters, it can be more difficult to test the validity of the general mathematical form of a model. In general, more mathematical tools have been developed to test the fit of statistical models than models involving differential equations. Tools from nonparametric statistics can sometimes be used to evaluate how well the data fit a known distribution or to come up with a general model that makes only minimal assumptions about the model's mathematical form.


title: Mathematical model

text: Assessing the scope of a model, that is, determining what situations the model is applicable to, can be less straightforward. If the model was constructed based on a set of data, one must determine for which systems or situations the known data is a "typical" set of data.


title: Mathematical model

text: The question of whether the model describes well the properties of the system between data points is called interpolation, and the same question for events or data points outside the observed data is called extrapolation.


title: Mathematical model

text: As an example of the typical limitations of the scope of a model, in evaluating Newtonian classical mechanics, we can note that Newton made his measurements without advanced equipment, so he could not measure properties of particles traveling at speeds close to the speed of light. Likewise, he did not measure the movements of molecules and other small particles, but macro particles only. It is then not surprising that his model does not extrapolate well into these domains, even though his model is quite sufficient for ordinary life physics.


title: Mathematical model

text: Many types of modeling implicitly involve claims about causality. This is usually (but not always) true of models involving differential equations. As the purpose of modeling is to increase our understanding of the world, the validity of a model rests not only on its fit to empirical observations, but also on its ability to extrapolate to situations or data beyond those originally described in the model. One can think of this as the differentiation between qualitative and quantitative predictions. One can also argue that a model is worthless unless it provides some insight which goes beyond what is already known from direct investigation of the phenomenon being studied.


title: Mathematical model

text: An example of such criticism is the argument that the mathematical models of optimal foraging theory do not offer insight that goes beyond the common-sense conclusions of evolution and other basic principles of ecology.


title: Mathematical model

text: Mathematical models are of great importance in the natural sciences, particularly in physics. Physical theories are almost invariably expressed using mathematical models.


title: Mathematical model

text: Throughout history, more and more accurate mathematical models have been developed. Newton's laws accurately describe many everyday phenomena, but at certain limits theory of relativity and quantum mechanics must be used.


title: Mathematical model

text: It is common to use idealized models in physics to simplify things. Massless ropes, point particles, ideal gases and the particle in a box are among the many simplified models used in physics. The laws of physics are represented with simple equations such as Newton's laws, Maxwell's equations and the Schrödinger equation. These laws are a basis for making mathematical models of real situations. Many real situations are very complex and thus modeled approximate on a computer, a model that is computationally feasible to compute is made from the basic laws or from approximate models made from the basic laws. For example, molecules can be modeled by molecular orbital models that are approximate solutions to the Schrödinger equation. In engineering, physics models are often made by mathematical methods such as finite element analysis.


title: Mathematical model

text: Different mathematical models use different geometries that are not necessarily accurate descriptions of the geometry of the universe. Euclidean geometry is much used in classical physics, while special relativity and general relativity are examples of theories that use geometries which are not Euclidean.


title: Mathematical model

text: Often when engineers analyze a system to be controlled or optimized, they use a mathematical model. In analysis, engineers can build a descriptive model of the system as a hypothesis of how the system could work, or try to estimate how an unforeseeable event could affect the system. Similarly, in control of a system, engineers can try out different control approaches in simulations.


title: Mathematical model

text: A mathematical model usually describes a system by a set of variables and a set of equations that establish relationships between the variables. Variables may be of many types; real or integer numbers, boolean values or strings, for example. The variables represent some properties of the system, for example, the measured system outputs often in the form of signals, timing data, counters, and event occurrence. The actual model is the set of functions that describe the relations between the different variables.


title: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

text: The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan, from 23 July to 8 August 2021. The games were postponed by one year as part of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports. However, the Games was referred to by its original date in all medals, uniforms, promotional items, and other related media in order to avoid confusion in future years. A total of 11,417 athletes from 206 nations participated in 339 events in 33 sports across 50 different disciplines.


title: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

text: Overall, the event saw two records: 93 nations received at least one medal, and 65 of them won at least one gold medal. Athletes from the United States won the most medals overall, with 113, and the most gold medals, with 39. Host nation Japan won 27 gold medals surpassing its gold medal tally of 16 at both the 1964 and 2004 summer editions. Athletes from that nation also won 58 medals overall, which eclipsed its record of 41 overall medals won at the previous Summer Olympics.


title: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

text: American swimmer Caeleb Dressel won the most gold medals at the games with five. Meanwhile, Australian swimmer Emma McKeon won the greatest number of medals overall, with seven in total. As a result, she tied Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya's seven medals at the 1952 summer edition for most medals won at a single games by a female athlete. Bermuda, Qatar, and the Philippines won their nation's first Olympic gold medals. Meanwhile, Burkina Faso, Turkmenistan, and San Marino won their nation's first Olympic medals. However, Turkmenistani athletes had previously competed as nationals of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union, in particular during the 1992 Summer Olympics, Turkmenistani athletes competed as part of the Unified Team.


title: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

text: The medals used for the 2020 Summer Olympics were designed by Junichi Kawanishi. They were manufactured using metal extracted from recycled small electronic devices donated by the public. The ribbon uses the traditional Japanese design motifs found in , a harmonised chequered pattern, and , a traditional kimono layering technique. The case is manufactured from Japanese ash wood dyed with the same colour as the Olympic emblem. The circular lid and the body of the case can be opened like a ring connected by a magnet. The obverse of the medals features Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, in front of Panathenaic Stadium and the Olympic rings.


title: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

text: As a result of safety protocols stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes were presented with their medals on trays, and were asked to put them on themselves (or each other, in the case of team winners), rather than having them placed around their necks by a dignitary.


title: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

text: The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC convention in its published medal tables. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won, where nation is an entity represented by a National Olympic Committee (NOC). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.


title: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

text: In boxing, judo, karate, taekwondo, and wrestling, two bronze medals are awarded in each weight class. Two gold medals (and no silver) were awarded to Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi for a first-place tie in the men's high jump athletics event. Two bronze medals were awarded to Angelina Melnikova and Mai Murakami for a third-place tie in the women's floor gymnastics event.


title: Effeminacy

text: Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rather than with traditionally masculine behaviours, mannerisms, styles or roles. Effeminacy and other gender expressions are independent of a person's sexuality or sexual identity and are displayed by people of all sexualities and none. However, effeminacy is seen in some societies as something embodied by some in the homosexual male community. The embodiment of effeminacy by people in some societies has resulted in prejudice, discrimination, antagonism and insults towards those who display it.


title: Effeminacy

text: "Effeminate" comes from Latin "effeminātus", from the factitive prefix "ex-" (from "ex" 'out') and "femina" 'woman'; it means 'made feminine, emasculated, weakened'. Another Latin term is "mollities", meaning 'softness'.


title: Effeminacy

text: In ancient Koine Greek, the word for effeminate is κίναιδος "kinaidos" ("cinaedus" in its Latinized form), or μαλακοί "malakoi": a man "whose most salient feature was a supposedly 'feminine' love of being sexually penetrated by other men"."A "cinaedus" is a man who cross-dresses or flirts like a girl. Indeed, the word's etymology suggests an indirect sexual act emulating a promiscuous woman. This term has been borrowed from the Greek "kinaidos" (which may itself have come from a language of Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor, primarily signifying a purely effeminate dancer who entertained his audiences with a "tympanum" or tambourine in his hand, and adopted a lascivious style, often suggestively wiggling his buttocks in such a way as to suggest anal intercourse...The primary meaning of "cinaedus" never died out; the term never became a dead metaphor."Other vernacular words for effeminacy include: "pansy", "nelly", "pretty boy", "nancy boy", "girly boy", "molly", "sissy", "pussy", "tomgirl", "femboy", "roseboy", "baby", and "girl" (when applied to a boy or, especially, adult man). The word "effete" similarly means effeminacy or over-refinement, but comes from the Latin term "effetus" meaning 'having given birth; exhausted', from "ex-" and "fetus" 'offspring'. The term "tomgirl", meaning a girlish boy, comes from an inversion of "tomboy", meaning a boyish girl. The term "girly boy" comes from a gender-inversion of "girly girl".


title: Effeminacy

text: Greek historian Plutarch recounts that Periander, the tyrant of Ambracia, asked his "boy", "Aren't you pregnant yet?" in the presence of other people, causing the boy to kill him in revenge for being treated as if effeminate or a woman ("Amatorius" 768F).


title: Effeminacy

text: When Aeschines was accused of treason by Athenians Timarchus and Demosthenes in 346 BC; he brought a counter suit claiming Timarchus had prostituted himself to (or been "kept" by) other men (Against Timarchus, and also attributed also Demosthenes' nickname Batalos ("arse") to his "unmanliness and "kinaidiā"" and frequently commented on his "unmanly and womanish temper", even criticising his clothing: "If anyone took those dainty little coats and soft shirts off you... and took them round for the jurors to handle, I think they'd be quite unable to say, if they hadn't been told in advance, whether they had hold of a man's clothing or a woman's."


title: Effeminacy

text: Demosthenes is also implicated in passive homosexuality and the prostitution of youth: "There is a certain Aristion, a Plataean..., who as a youth was outstandingly good-looking and lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house. Allegations about the part he was playing [lit., 'undergoing or doing what'] there vary, and it would be most unseemly for me to talk about it."


title: Effeminacy

text: The late Greek "Erôtes" ("Loves", "Forms of Desire", "Affairs of the Heart"), preserved with manuscripts by Lucian, contains a debate "between two men, Charicles and Callicratidas, over the relative merits of women and boys as vehicles of male sexual pleasure." Callicratidas, "far from being effeminised by his sexual predilection for boys... Callicratidas's inclination renders him hypervirile... Callicratidas's sexual desire for boys, then, makes him more of a man; it does not weaken or subvert his male gender identity but rather consolidates it." In contrast, "Charicles' erotic preference for women seems to have had the corresponding effect of effeminising him: when the reader first encounters him, for example, Charicles is described as exhibiting 'a skillful use of cosmetics, so as to be attractive to women.'"


title: Effeminacy

text: Over-refinement, fine clothes and other possessions, the company of women, certain trades, and too much fondness with women were all deemed effeminate traits in Roman society. Taking an inappropriate sexual position, passive or "bottom", in same-gender sex was considered effeminate and unnatural. Touching the head with a finger and wearing a goatee were also considered effeminate.


title: Effeminacy

text: Roman consul Scipio Aemilianus questioned one of his opponents, P. Sulpicius Galus: "For the kind of man who adorns himself daily in front of a mirror, wearing perfume; whose eyebrows are shaved off; who walks around with plucked beard and thighs; who when he was a young man reclined at banquets next to his lover, wearing a long-sleeved tunic; who is fond of men as he is of wine: can anyone doubt that he has done what "cinaedi" are in the habit of doing?"


title: Effeminacy

text: Roman orator Quintilian described, "The plucked body, the broken walk, the female attire," as "signs of one who is soft [mollis] and not a real man."


title: Effeminacy

text: For Roman men masculinity also meant self-control, even in the face of painful emotions, illnesses, or death. Cicero says, "There exist certain precepts, even laws, that prohibit a man from being effeminate in pain," and Seneca adds, "If I must suffer illness, it will be my wish to do nothing out of control, nothing effeminately."


title: Effeminacy

text: Emperor/philosopher Julian the Apostate, in his "Against the Galileans", wrote: <nowiki>"</nowiki>Why the Egyptians are more intelligent and more given to crafts, and the Syrians unwarlike and effeminate, but at the same time intelligent, hot-tempered, vain and quick to learn?<nowiki>"</nowiki>


title: Effeminacy

text: In his "Commentaries on the Gallic Wars", Julius Caesar wrote that the Belgians were the bravest of all Gauls because "merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind".


title: Effeminacy

text: Emperor Marcus Aurelius evidently considered effeminacy an undesirable trait, but it is unclear as to what or who was being referred.


title: Effeminacy

text: "Malakos" is listed among other vices in the New Testament book of I Corinthians 6:9. Translations use different terms to express this. The online Greek Interlinear Bible uses Strongs concordance (last corrected in 2008) translates "Malakoi" as "Catamites", and "Arsenokoitia" as "sodomites". The word "malakos", #3120 in the Greek Dictionary of The New Testament of James Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to The Bible states: "of uncertain affinity".


title: Effeminacy

text: In September 2021, the Associated Press reported that the mainland Chinese government has banned effeminate men from appearing in television commercials. The Chinese government instructed broadcasters to stop showing "sissy men."


title: Effeminacy

text: In the United States, boys are often homosocial, and gender role performance determines social rank. While gay boys receive the same enculturation, they are less compliant. Martin Levine summarizes: "Harry (1982, 51–52), for example, found that 42 percent of his gay respondents were 'sissies' during childhood. Only 11 percent of his heterosexual samples were gender-role nonconformists. Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith (1981, 188) reported that half of their male homosexual subjects practised gender-inappropriate behaviour in childhood. Among their heterosexual men, the rate of noncompliance was 25 percent. Saghir and Robins (1973, 18) found that one-third of their gay man respondents conformed to gender role dictates. Only 3 percent of their heterosexual men deviated from the norm." Thus effeminate boys, or sissies, are physically and verbally harassed (Saghir and Robins, 1973, 17–18; Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith 1981, 74–84), causing them to feel worthless and "de-feminise".


title: Effeminacy

text: Prior to the Stonewall riots, inconsistent gender role performance had been noticed among gay men: "They have a different face for different occasions. In conversations with each other, they often undergo a subtle change. I have seen men who appeared to be normal suddenly smile roguishly, soften their voices, and simper as they greeted homosexual friends [...] Many times I saw these changes occur after I had gained a homosexual's confidence and he could safely risk my disapproval. Once as I watched a luncheon companion become an effeminate caricature of himself, he apologized, 'It is hard to always remember that one is a man.'" Pre-Stonewall "closet" culture accepted homosexuality as effeminate behaviour, and thus emphasized camp, drag, and swish including an interest in fashion and decorating. Masculine gay men were marginalised and formed their own communities, such as the leather subculture, and/or wore clothes that were commonly associated with working-class individuals, such as sailor uniforms.


title: Effeminacy

text: Post-Stonewall, "clone culture" became dominant and effeminacy is now marginalised. One indicator of this is a definite preference shown in personal ads for masculine-behaving men. The avoidance of effeminacy by men, including gay ones, has been linked to possible impedance of personal and public health. Regarding HIV/AIDS, masculine behaviour was stereotyped as being unconcerned about safe sex practices while engaging in promiscuous sexual behaviour. Early reports from New York City indicated that more women had themselves tested for HIV/AIDS than men. David Halperin compares "universalising" and "minoritising" notions of gender deviance: "'Softness' either may represent the specter of potential gender failure that haunts all normative masculinity, an ever-present threat to the masculinity of every man, or it may represent the disfiguring peculiarity of a small class of deviant individuals."


title: Effeminacy

text: The term "effeminiphobia" (sometimes "effemiphobic", as used by Randy P. Conner) was coined by Will Fellows to describe strong anti-effeminacy. Michael Bailey coined the similar term "femiphobia" to describe the ambivalence gay men and culture have about effeminate behaviour in 1995. Gay author Tim Bergling popularized the term "sissyphobia" in "", although it was used before. Transgender writer and biologist Julia Serano has coined the similar term "effemimania". Feminist Sociologist Rhea Ashley Hoskin suggests that these terms can be understood as relating to a larger construct of "", or "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone who is "perceived" to identify, embody, or express femininely and toward people and objects gendered femininely." Since the 2000s, Peter Hennen's cultural analysis of gay masculinities has found effeminacy to be a “historically varying concept deployed primarily as a means of stabilising a given society’s concept of masculinity and controlling the conduct of its men based upon the repudiation of the feminine”.


title: Effeminacy

text: Femboy (alternatively spelled femboi) is a modern slang term used to refer to a young person who identifies as male and who displays traditionally feminine characteristics, such as wearing dresses and skirts. (Fem/Femme instead of Femboy for trans women/non-binary gender individuals). It is a portmanteau of "feminine" and "boy". The term "femboy" emerged by at least the 1990s and gained traction online, used in both sexual and non-sexual contexts. Recently, femboys have become increasingly visible due to


title: Effeminacy

text: While the term can be used as an insult directed towards people who cross-dress (or misappropriating transgender as the same thing), it is also used as a positive/self-describing term within the LGBT community.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Dara Ó Briain ( , ; born 4 February 1972) is an Irish comedian and television presenter based in the United Kingdom. He is noted for performing stand-up comedy shows all over the world and for hosting topical panel shows such as "Mock the Week", "The Panel", and "". For his work on "Mock the Week", he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance in 2012.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Ó Briain's TV work also includes starring in and writing television comedy and documentary series. He has also been a newspaper columnist, with pieces published in national papers in both Britain and Ireland.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: He has written books for both adults and children. His first children's book "Beyond the Sky" was nominated for a Blue Peter Book of the Year Award in 2017.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In 2009, the "Irish Independent" described Ó Briain as "Terry Wogan's heir apparent as Britain's 'favourite Irishman'" and in 2010, Ó Briain was voted the 16th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's "100 Greatest Stand-Ups".


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Ó Briain was born in 1972 in Bray, County Wicklow, and adopted into what he described as "a stable home" where he enjoyed a happy childhood with his "supportive" parents. He attended Coláiste Eoin secondary school, a "Gaelcholáiste" (Irish-speaking medium school) on Dublin's southside. He attended University College Dublin (UCD), where he studied mathematics and theoretical physics. In 2008, he remarked: "I haven't written it into my act, but it occasionally comes through. I could come on with a chalkboard and say: 'Now you're all going to pay attention.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: While a student at UCD, he was both the auditor of the Literary and Historical Society (the university's oldest debating society) and the co-founder and co-editor of "The University Observer" college newspaper. In 1994, he won the "Irish Times" National Debating Championship and "The Irish Times"/Gael Linn National Irish language debating championship; he is a fluent Irish speaker, and speaks to his father only in that language.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: He played both Gaelic football and hurling for Bray Emmets and hurling for the Wicklow County minor team.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: After graduating in 1994, Ó Briain began working at RTÉ as a children's TV presenter. At this time, he also began performing his first stand-up gigs on the Irish comedy circuit. He admitted, "I did the trip from Dublin to Donegal to play to six people; then I turned round and drove home again. I did about three or four years playing to a lot of bad rooms, but learning as I went. It's not bad when someone gives you £40 for standing up and telling jokes. I remember thinking: 'This is the life.'" Ó Briain spent three years as a presenter on the bilingual (Irish and English) children's programme "Echo Island" but came to prominence as a team captain on the topical panel show" Don't Feed the Gondolas" (1998–2000) hosted by Seán Moncrieff. Ó Briain also hosted RTÉ family entertainment gameshow "It's a Family Affair".


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Ó Briain's stand up international career took off around this time as he began to tour heavily, performing across Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, with gigs in Dubai, Paris, Adelaide, Shanghai and New York City. He was a regular at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as well as making one notable appearance at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal in 2002, where he was offered a prestigious gala show because of his performances at the Irish showcase. Around this time, Ó Briain presented the weekend game show "It's a Family Affair" on RTÉ Television. It was the first time he worked with former Channel 4 commissioning editor Séamus Cassidy. They later set up the production company Happy Endings Productions, and together they produced (and Ó Briain presented) the chat show "Buried Alive" (2003) and most famously in Ireland "The Panel" (2003–2006).


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In 2005, Ó Briain's eighth show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the biggest-selling solo comedy show of the festival.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In early 2006, Ó Briain conducted his third tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. This included shows at the Theatre Royal, in London as well as nine nights in Dublin at Vicar Street. His second night in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London was recorded for his first live DVD. His fourth multinational tour followed in late 2007, which as he says in his routine has "no title" but was almost entitled "You Had to Be There".


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: He performed new tours across the UK and Ireland in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2018. His 2010 tour played for 150 dates, to over 225,000 people, including 37 nights in Vicar St. in Dublin, 9 nights at the Hammersmith Apollo in London and a first date in Dubai. Each of those three tours were recorded for DVD, and the 2012 tour, entitled 'Craic Dealer', was similarly recorded during his shows at the Edinburgh Playhouse in May 2012. "Craic Dealer" ran for over 150 shows, as did his 2015 tour "Crowd Tickler", this time with dates in Scandinavia, Northern Europe and Australia added to the tour. The tour was recorded for a DVD release.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: On 12 March 2011, Ó Briain, Jack Whitehall and Jon Richardson set a new "Guinness World Records" title for hosting the 'highest stand-up comedy gig in the world', on a British Airways flight in support of Comic Relief.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In 2011, Ó Briain took part in two shows of the 16-date "Uncaged Monkeys" tour with Professor Brian Cox, Robin Ince, Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh and Chris Addison.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In Oct 2017 he started touring his show "Voice of Reason". As well as another 37 nights in Vicar St Theatre in Dublin (to bring his total there to 197 shows), "Voice of Reason" was performed more than 175 times, in 20 countries, including debut shows in Reykjavik, St Petersburg, Malta, Germany and New Zealand. It was recorded as a BBC special at the Hammersmith Apollo, for broadcast in 2019. He had originally planned to perform the show on debut tours to the US and Canada in 2020, but this was postponed after the first four US dates, in early March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian part of the tour resumed in August 2021.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In September 2021 he announced a new show, named "So... Where Were We?", with a tour starting in November 2021. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a portion of the tour in Ireland that was originally planned for January 2022 was pushed back to March through June 2022.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: "The Panel" was hosted by Ó Briain. Three times nominated for the Best Entertainment show IFTA (Irish Film and Television Awards) the show has a rotating cast of panellists, usually drawn from the world of Irish comedy, discussing the events of the week and interviewing guests. The most regular panellists have been Colin Murphy, Ed Byrne, Neil Delamere, Andrew Maxwell and Mairéad Farrell.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Around 2002, with his profile rising in the UK due to his one-man shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ó Briain began making appearances on UK television shows such as "Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment" (a Channel 5 production) and "Never Mind the Buzzcocks". In early 2003, he hosted the second series of BBC Scotland's "Live Floor Show". His big break in UK television came in 2003, when he appeared as a guest panellist on news quiz, "Have I Got News for You", subsequently making several appearances as guest host of the show.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In 2003, Ó Briain was nominated at the "Chortle Comedy Awards for Live Comedy" in the categories Best Compère and Best Headline Act (which he would go on to win). In 2004, he won the Best Headliner award again, as well as being nominated for Best Full-length Show.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: From 2005 to 2022, he was the host of the comedy panel show "Mock the Week" on BBC Two, a blend between "Have I Got News for You" and "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" The show reached its 200th episode during its 19th series in 2019.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: He is a relatively frequent panellist on "QI" and wrote about Ireland in the "QI" series E annual, and appears occasionally on "Just a Minute" on BBC Radio 4.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: He also holds the record for greatest number of appearances (7) on the BBC stand-up showcase "Live at the Apollo".


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Ó Briain has appeared several times in the BBC Radio science / comedy show "The Infinite Monkey Cage" which premiered on 30 November 2009 on Radio 4.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In 2010, Ó Briain replaced Adrian Chiles as the presenter of "". After five years, he quit following the 2014 series.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In 2016, Ó Briain hosted a panel show about video games called "Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit". Series 3 began in February 2018.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Since 2006, Ó Briain has starred in the BBC's "Three Men in a Boat" series, with Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath. The series has included the trio rowing the River Thames, as in the 1889 novel of the same name, sailing from London to the Isle of Wight for a sail boat race, borrowing numerous vessels to make their way from Plymouth to the Isles of Scilly. In 2009, the three took to the Irish canals and rivers on a trip from Dublin to Limerick. In 2010, they explored the Isles of Scotland. In 2011, two more series were made; one travelling from Montenegro to Venice, the other travelling down the New England coast in the US to New York. In total seven series were made.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: On 14 September 2005, Ó Briain appeared as a guest on "Room 101", where he got rid of children's television presenters (following his work as a presenter on "Echo Island") and once-in-a-lifetime experiences (he was given a once-in-a-lifetime experience on the show by being the second guest to pull the lever that opens the chute to Room 101 – the first had been former host Nick Hancock). He also got rid of banter, Gillian McKeith and magicians.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Ó Briain has also been an extensive newspaper columnist, with pieces published in many national papers in both the UK and Ireland, from "The Sunday Times" to "The Daily Telegraph". On 9 August 2006, he hosted the first edition of his chat show "Turn Back Time". which only ran for one series.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: On 1 October 2009, Ó Briain released his first book entitled "Tickling the English", about what he considers it means to be English. As part of its promotion, he has stated that he is enthusiastic about English culture and a student of English history, his favourite events being the Gin Craze and the civil war. In a review of "Tickling the English" Ó Briain was described as Sir Terry Wogan's heir apparent as Britain's "favourite Irishman".


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Ó Briain has hosted the British Academy Video Games Awards 9 times between 2009 and 2019, including 2012, when highlights were also shown on Challenge.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: In 2012 he hosted the Bafta Television awards, the same year he was nominated for a Best Entertainment Performance Award.


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: From 3 to 5 January 2011, Ó Briain and Brian Cox presented "Stargazing Live" on BBC Two, three programmes based at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, scheduled to coincide with the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus, a partial solar eclipse, and the Quadrantid meteor shower. The two presenters hosted a second series of three-hour-long programmes, plus follow-up 30-minute shows called "Stargazing Live: Back to Earth", from 16 to 18 January 2012. From 8 to 10 January 2013, they presented the third series, again accompanied by "Back to Earth".


title: Dara Ó Briain

text: Stargazing Live has continued to run intermittently throughout the decade, including live coverage of the Partial solar eclipse over the Uk in 2015, Astronaut Tim Peake's journey to the ISS in 2016, and a 50th anniversary celebration of the Apollo missions in 2019.