title: Affine transformation

text: To visualise the general affine transformation of the Euclidean plane, take labelled parallelograms "ABCD" and "A′B′C′D′". Whatever the choices of points, there is an affine transformation "T" of the plane taking "A" to "A′", and each vertex similarly. Supposing we exclude the degenerate case where "ABCD" has zero area, there is a unique such affine transformation "T". Drawing out a whole grid of parallelograms based on "ABCD", the image "T"("P") of any point "P" is determined by noting that "T"("A") = "A′", "T" applied to the line segment "AB" is "A′B′", "T" applied to the line segment "AC" is "A′C′", and "T" respects scalar multiples of vectors based at "A". [If "A", "E", "F" are collinear then the ratio length("AF")/length("AE") is equal to length("A"′"F"′)/length("A"′"E"′).] Geometrically "T" transforms the grid based on "ABCD" to that based in "A′B′C′D′".


title: Affine transformation

text: A given "T" may either be "direct" (respect orientation), or "indirect" (reverse orientation), and this may be determined by its effect on "signed" areas (as defined, for example, by the cross product of vectors).


title: Affine transformation

text: The functions formula_68 with formula_69 and formula_70 in formula_71 and formula_72, are precisely the affine transformations of the real line.


title: Affine transformation

text: Transforming the three corner points of the original triangle (in red) gives three new points which form the new triangle (in blue). This transformation skews and translates the original triangle.


title: Affine transformation

text: In fact, all triangles are related to one another by affine transformations. This is also true for all parallelograms, but not for all quadrilaterals.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved as a child in Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean as a victim of the Atlantic slave trade and sold as a slave to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more but purchased his freedom in 1766.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: As a freedman in London, Equiano supported the British abolitionist movement. He was part of the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group comprised of Africans living in Britain, and he was active among leaders of the anti-slave trade movement in the 1780s. He published his autobiography, "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" (1789), which depicted the horrors of slavery. It went through nine editions in his lifetime and helped obtain passing of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade. Equiano married an English woman, Susannah Cullen, in 1792 and they had two daughters. He died in 1797 in Westminster.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Since the late 20th century, when his autobiography was published in a new edition, he has been studied by various scholars, including from his homeland.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: According to his memoir, Equiano was born in Essaka, Eboe, in the Kingdom of Benin around 1745. The village was in the southeast part of present-day Nigeria. In his autobiography he wrote: "My father, besides many slaves, had a numerous family, of which seven lived to grow up" and that he was the youngest son. He stated that his father was one of the elders or chiefs who sat in judgement with other elders to decide what to do about disputes or crimes. He refers to men called the Oye-Eboe who brought goods like guns, gunpowder and dried fish. In return, Equiano says: "Sometimes indeed we sold slaves to them, but they were only prisoners of war, or such among us as had been convicted of kidnapping, or adultery, and some other crimes, which we esteemed heinous." He proceeded, "When a trader wants slaves, he applies to a chief for them, and tempts him with his wares ... and accepts the price of his fellow creature's liberty with as little reluctance as the enlightened merchant." This was usually the cause of war in order to obtain the slaves to gratify "his avarice".


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano recounted an incident of an attempted kidnapping of children in his Igbo village, which was foiled by adults. When he was around the age of eleven, he and his sister were left alone to look after their family premises, as was common when adults went out of the house to work. They were both kidnapped and taken far from their hometown, separated and sold to slave traders. He tried to escape but was thwarted. After his owners changed several times, Equiano happened to meet with his sister but they were separated again. Six or seven months after he had been kidnapped, he arrived at the coast where he was taken on board a European slave ship. He was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados in the British West Indies. He and a few other slaves were sent on for sale in the Colony of Virginia.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Literary scholar Vincent Carretta argued in his 2005 biography of Equiano that the activist could have been born in colonial South Carolina rather than Africa, based on a 1759 parish baptismal record that lists Equiano's place of birth as Carolina and a 1773 ship's muster that indicates South Carolina. Carretta's conclusion is disputed by other scholars who believe the weight of evidence supports Equiano's account of coming from Africa.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: In Virginia, Equiano was bought by Michael Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Pascal renamed the boy "Gustavus Vassa", after the 16th-century King of Sweden Gustav Vasa who began the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. Equiano had already been renamed twice: he was called Michael while on board the slave ship that brought him to the Americas; and Jacob, by his first owner. This time, Equiano refused and told his new owner that he would prefer to be called Jacob. His refusal, he says, "gained me many a cuff" and eventually he submitted to the new name. He used this name for the rest of his life, including on all official records; he only used Equiano in his autobiography.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Pascal took Equiano with him when he returned to England and had him accompany him as a valet during the Seven Years' War with France (1756–1763). Equiano gives eyewitness reports of the Siege of Louisbourg (1758), the Battle of Lagos (1759) and the Capture of Belle Île (1761). Also trained in seamanship, Equiano was expected to assist the ship's crew in times of battle; his duty was to haul gunpowder to the gun decks. Pascal favoured Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain so that he could attend school and learn to read and write.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano converted to Christianity and was baptised at St Margaret's, Westminster, on 9 February 1759, when he was described in the parish register as "a Black, born in Carolina, 12 years old". His godparents were Mary Guerin and her brother, Maynard, who were cousins of his master Pascal. They had taken an interest in him and helped him to learn English. Later, when Equiano's origins were questioned after his book was published, the Guerins testified to his lack of English when he first came to London.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: In December 1762, Pascal sold Equiano to Captain James Doran of the "Charming Sally" at Gravesend, from where he was transported back to the Caribbean, to Montserrat, in the Leeward Islands. There, he was sold to Robert King, an American Quaker merchant from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Robert King set Equiano to work on his shipping routes and in his stores. In 1765, when Equiano was about 20 years old, King promised that for his purchase price of 40 pounds () he could buy his freedom. King taught him to read and write more fluently, guided him along the path of religion, and allowed Equiano to engage in profitable trading for his own account, as well as on his owner's behalf. Equiano sold fruits, glass tumblers and other items between Georgia and the Caribbean islands. King allowed Equiano to buy his freedom, which he achieved in 1766. The merchant urged Equiano to stay on as a business partner. However, Equiano found it dangerous and limiting to remain in the British colonies as a freedman. While loading a ship in Georgia, he was almost kidnapped back into enslavement.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: By about 1768, Equiano had gone to England. He continued to work at sea, travelling sometimes as a deckhand based in England. In 1773 on the Royal Navy ship HMS "Racehorse", he travelled to the Arctic in an expedition towards the North Pole. On that voyage he worked with Dr Charles Irving, who had developed a process to distill seawater and later made a fortune from it. Two years later, Irving recruited Equiano for a project on the Mosquito Coast in Central America, where he was to use his African background to help select slaves and manage them as labourers on sugar-cane plantations. Irving and Equiano had a working relationship and friendship for more than a decade, but the plantation venture failed. Equiano met with George, the "Musquito king’s son".


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano settled in London, where in the 1780s he became involved in the abolitionist movement. The movement to end the slave trade had been particularly strong among Quakers, but the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787 as a non-denominational group, with Anglican members, in an attempt to influence parliament directly. Under the Test Act, only those prepared to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of England were permitted to serve as MPs. Equiano had been influenced by George Whitefield's evangelism.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: As early as 1783, Equiano informed abolitionists such as Granville Sharp about the slave trade; that year he was the first to tell Sharp about the "Zong" massacre, which was being tried in London as litigation for insurance claims. It became a "cause célèbre" for the abolitionist movement and contributed to its growth.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: On 21 October 1785 he was one of eight delegates from Africans in America to present an 'Address of Thanks' to the Quakers at a meeting in Gracechurch Street, London. The address referred to "A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies" by Anthony Benezet, founder of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano was befriended and supported by abolitionists, many of whom encouraged him to write and publish his life story. He was supported financially in this effort by philanthropic abolitionists and religious benefactors. His lectures and preparation for the book were promoted by, among others, Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Entitled "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African" (1789), the book went through nine editions in his lifetime. It is one of the earliest-known examples of published writing by an African writer to be widely read in England. By 1792, it was a best seller and had been published in Russia, Germany, Holland and the United States. It was the first influential slave narrative of what became a large literary genre. But Equiano's experience in slavery was quite different from that of most slaves; he did not participate in field work, he served his owners personally and went to sea, was taught to read and write, and worked in trading.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano's personal account of slavery, his journey of advancement, and his experiences as a black immigrant caused a sensation on publication. The book fuelled a growing anti-slavery movement in Great Britain, Europe and the New World. His account surprised many with the quality of its imagery, description and literary style.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: In his account, Equiano gives details about his hometown and the laws and customs of the Eboe people. After being captured as a boy, he described communities he passed through as a captive on his way to the coast. His biography details his voyage on a slave ship and the brutality of slavery in the colonies of the West Indies, Virginia and Georgia.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano commented on the reduced rights that freed people of colour had in these same places, and they also faced risks of kidnapping and enslavement. Equiano embraced Christianity at the age of 14 and its importance to him is a recurring theme in his autobiography. He was baptised into the Church of England in 1759; he described himself in his autobiography as a "protestant of the church of England" but also flirted with Methodism.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Several events in Equiano's life led him to question his faith. He was distressed in 1774 by the kidnapping of his friend, a black cook named John Annis, who was taken forcibly off the British ship "Anglicania" on which they were both serving. His friend's kidnapper, William Kirkpatrick, did not abide by the decision in the Somersett Case (1772), that slaves could not be taken from England without their permission, as common law did not support the institution in England & Wales. Kirkpatrick had Annis transported to Saint Kitts, where he was punished severely and worked as a plantation labourer until he died. With the aid of Granville Sharp, Equiano tried to get Annis released before he was shipped from England but was unsuccessful. He heard that Annis was not free from suffering until he died in slavery. Despite his questioning, he affirms his faith in Christianity, as seen in the penultimate sentence of his work that quotes the prophet Micah (): "After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn 'to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God?'"


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: In his account, Equiano also told of his settling in London. He married an English woman and lived with her in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where they had two daughters. He became a leading abolitionist in the 1780s, lecturing in numerous cities against the slave trade. Equiano records his and Granville Sharp's central roles in the anti-slave trade movement, and their effort to publicise the "Zong" massacre, which became known in 1783.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Reviewers have found that his book demonstrated the full and complex humanity of Africans as much as the inhumanity of slavery. The book was considered an exemplary work of English literature by a new African author. Equiano did so well in sales that he achieved independence from his benefactors. He travelled throughout England, Scotland and Ireland promoting the book. He worked to improve economic, social and educational conditions in Africa. Specifically, he became involved in working in Sierra Leone, a colony founded in 1792 for freed slaves by Britain in West Africa.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: During the American Revolutionary War, Britain had recruited black people to fight with it by offering freedom to those who left rebel masters. In practice, it also freed women and children, and attracted thousands of slaves to its lines in New York City, which it occupied, and in the South, where its troops occupied Charleston, South Carolina. When British troops were evacuated at the end of the war, their officers also evacuated these American slaves. They were resettled in the Caribbean, in Nova Scotia, in Sierra Leone in Africa, and in London. Britain refused to return the slaves, which the United States sought in peace negotiations.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: In 1783, following the United States' gaining independence, Equiano became involved in helping the Black Poor of London, who were mostly those African-American slaves freed during and after the American Revolution by the British. There were also some freed slaves from the Caribbean, and some who had been brought by their owners to England and freed later after the decision that Britain had no basis in common law for slavery. The black community numbered about 20,000. After the Revolution some 3,000 former slaves had been transported from New York to Nova Scotia, where they became known as Black Loyalists, among other Loyalists also resettled there. Many of the freedmen found it difficult to make new lives in London or Canada.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano was appointed "Commissary of Provisions and Stores for the Black Poor going to Sierra Leone" in November 1786. This was an expedition to resettle London's Black Poor in Freetown, a new British colony founded on the west coast of Africa, in present-day Sierra Leone. The blacks from London were joined by more than 1,200 Black Loyalists who chose to leave Nova Scotia. They were aided by John Clarkson, younger brother of abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. Jamaican maroons, as well as slaves liberated from illegal slave-trading ships after Britain abolished the slave trade, also settled at Freetown in the early decades. Equiano was dismissed from the new settlement after protesting against financial mismanagement and he returned to London.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano was a prominent figure in London and often served as a spokesman for the black community. He was one of the leading members of the Sons of Africa, a small abolitionist group composed of free Africans in London. They were closely allied with the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Equiano's comments on issues were published in newspapers such as the "Public Advertiser" and the "Morning Chronicle". He replied to James Tobin in 1788, in the "Public Advertiser", attacking two of his pamphlets and a related book from 1786 by Gordon Turnbull. Equiano had more of a public voice than most Africans or Black Loyalists and he seized various opportunities to use it.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano was an active member of the radical working-class London Corresponding Society, which campaigned for democratic reform. In 1791–92, touring the British Isles with his autobiography and drawing on abolitionist networks he brokered connections for the LCS, including what may have been the Society's first contacts with the United Irishmen. In Belfast, where his appearance in May 1791 was celebrated by abolitionists who five years previously had defeated plans to commission vessels in the port for the Middle Passage, Equiano was hosted by the leading United Irishman, publisher of their Painite newspaper the "Northern Star", Samuel Neilson. Following the onset of war with revolutionary France, leading members of the LCS, including Thomas Hardy with whom Equiano lodged in 1792, were charged with treason, and in 1799, following evidence of communication between leading members and the insurrectionary United Irishmen, the society was suppressed.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: On 7 April 1792, Equiano married Susannah Cullen, a local woman, in St Andrew's Church, Soham, Cambridgeshire. The original marriage register containing the entry for Vassa and Cullen is held today by the Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies. He included his marriage in every edition of his autobiography from 1792 onwards. The couple settled in the area and had two daughters, Anna Maria (1793–1797) and Joanna (1795–1857) who were baptised at Soham church.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Susannah died in February 1796, aged 34, and Equiano died a year after that on 31 March 1797. Soon after, the elder daughter died at the age of four, leaving the younger child, Joanna Vassa, to inherit Equiano's estate when she was 21; it was then valued at £950 (). Anna Maria is commemorated by a plaque at St Andrew's Church, Chesterton, Cambridge. Joanna Vassa married the Reverend Henry Bromley, a Congregationalist minister, in 1821. They are both buried at the non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington, London; the Bromleys' monument is now a Grade II listed building.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: He drew up his will on 28 May 1796. At the time he made this will he was living at the Plaisterers' Hall, then on Addle Street, in Aldermanbury in the City of London. He moved to John Street (now Whitfield Street), close to Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road. At his death on 31 March 1797, he was living in Paddington Street, Westminster. Equiano's death was reported in American as well as British newspapers.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano was buried at Whitefield's Tabernacle on 6 April. The entry in the register reads "Gustus Vasa, 52 years, S Mary Le bone". His burial place has been lost. The small burial ground lay either side of the chapel and is now Whitfield Gardens. The site of the chapel is now the American International Church.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano's will, in the event of his daughters' deaths before reaching the age of 21, bequeathed half his wealth to the Sierra Leone Company for a school in Sierra Leone, and half to the London Missionary Society.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Following publication in 1967 of a newly edited version of his memoir by Paul Edwards, interest in Equiano revived. Scholars from Nigeria have also begun studying him. For example, S.S. Ogede identifies Equiano as a pioneer in asserting "the dignity of African life in the white society of his time".


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: In researching his life, some scholars since the late 20th century have disputed Equiano's account of his origins. In 1999 while editing a new version of Equiano's memoir, Vincent Carretta, a professor of English at the University of Maryland, found two records that led him to question the former slave's account of being born in Africa. He first published his findings in the journal "Slavery and Abolition". At a 2003 conference in England, Carretta defended himself against Nigerian academics, like Obiwu, who accused him of "pseudo-detective work" and indulging "in vast publicity gamesmanship". In his 2005 biography, Carretta suggested that Equiano may have been born in South Carolina rather than Africa, as he was twice recorded from there. Carretta wrote:


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Equiano was certainly African by descent. The circumstantial evidence that Equiano was also African-American by birth and African-British by choice is compelling but not absolutely conclusive. Although the circumstantial evidence is not equivalent to proof, anyone dealing with Equiano's life and art must consider it.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: According to Carretta, Equiano/Vassa's baptismal record and a naval muster roll document him as from South Carolina. Carretta interpreted these anomalies as possible evidence that Equiano had made up the account of his African origins, and adopted material from others. But Paul Lovejoy, Alexander X. Byrd and Douglas Chambers note how many general and specific details Carretta can document from sources that related to the slave trade in the 1750s as described by Equiano, including the voyages from Africa to Virginia, sale to Pascal in 1754, and others. They conclude he was more likely telling what he understood as fact, rather than creating a fictional account; his work is shaped as an autobiography.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: circumstantial evidence indicates that he was born where he said he was, and that, in fact, "The Interesting Narrative" is reasonably accurate in its details, although, of course, subject to the same criticisms of selectivity and self-interested distortion that characterize the genre of autobiography.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Lovejoy uses the name of Vassa in his article, since that was what the man used throughout his life, in "his baptism, his naval records, marriage certificate and will". He emphasises that Vassa only used his African name in his autobiography.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Other historians also argue that the fact that many parts of Equiano's account can be proven lends weight to accepting his account of African birth. As historian Adam Hochschild has written:


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: In the long and fascinating history of autobiographies that distort or exaggerate the truth. ... Seldom is one crucial portion of a memoir totally fabricated and the remainder scrupulously accurate; among autobiographers ... both dissemblers and truth-tellers tend to be consistent.


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: He also noted that "since the 'rediscovery' of Vassa's account in the 1960s, scholars have valued it as the most extensive account of an eighteenth-century slave's life and the difficult passage from slavery to freedom".


title: Olaudah Equiano

text: Numerous works about Equiano have been produced for and since the 2007 bicentenary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade:


title: Mecha

text: In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is more inclusive, and or 'giant robot' is the narrower term.


title: Mecha

text: Fictional mecha vary greatly in size and shape, but are distinguished from vehicles by their humanoid or biomorphic appearance, although they are bigger, often much bigger, than human beings. Different subgenres exist, with varying connotations of realism. The concept of Super Robot and Real Robot are two such examples found in Japanese anime and manga.


title: Mecha

text: Real-world piloted humanoid or non-humanoid robotic platforms, existing or planned, may also be called "mecha". In Japanese, "mecha" may refer to mobile machinery or vehicles (including aircraft) in general, manned or otherwise.


title: Mecha

text: 'Mecha' is an abbreviation, first used in Japanese, of 'mechanical'. In Japanese, mecha encompasses all mechanical objects, including cars, guns, computers, and other devices, and 'robot' or 'giant robot' is used to distinguish limbed vehicles from other mechanical devices. Outside of this usage, it has become associated with large humanoid machines with limbs or other biological characteristics. Mechas differ from robots in that they are piloted from a cockpit, typically located in the chest or head of the mech.


title: Mecha

text: While the distinction is often hazy, mecha typically does not refer to form-fitting powered armor such as Iron Man's suit. They are usually much larger than the wearer, like Iron Man's enemy the Iron Monger, or the mobile suits depicted in the "Gundam" franchise.


title: Mecha

text: In most cases, mecha are depicted as fighting machines, whose appeal comes from the combination of potent weaponry with a more stylish combat technique than a mere vehicle. Often, they are the primary means of combat, with conflicts sometimes being decided through gladiatorial matches. Other works represent mecha as one component of an integrated military force, supported by and fighting alongside tanks, fighter aircraft, and infantry, functioning as a mechanical cavalry. The applications often highlight the theoretical usefulness of such a device, combining a tank's resilience and firepower with infantry's ability to cross unstable terrain and a high degree of customization. In some continuities, special scenarios are constructed to make mecha more viable than current-day status. For example, in Gundam the fictional Minovsky particle inhibits the use of radar, making long-range ballistic strikes impractical, thus favouring relatively close-range warfare of Mobile Suits.


title: Mecha

text: However, some stories, such as the manga/anime franchise "Patlabor" and the American wargame "BattleTech" universe, also encompass mecha used for civilian purposes, such as heavy construction work, police functions, or firefighting. Mecha also have roles as transporters, recreation, advanced hazmat suits, and other research and development applications.


title: Mecha

text: Mecha have been used in fantasy settings, for example in the anime series "Aura Battler Dunbine", "The Vision of Escaflowne", "Panzer World Galient", and "Maze". In those cases, the mecha designs are usually based on some alternative or "lost" science-fiction technology from ancient times. In case of anime series "Zoids", the machines resemble dinosaurs and animals, and have been shown to evolve from native metallic organisms.


title: Mecha

text: A chicken walker is a fictional type of bipedal robot or mecha, distinguished by its rear-facing knee joint. This type of articulation resembles a bird's legs, hence the name. However, birds actually have forward-facing knees; they are digitigrade, and what most call the "knee" is actually the ankle.


title: Mecha

text: The 1868 Edward S. Ellis novel "The Steam Man of the Prairies" featured a steam-powered, back-piloted, mechanical man.


title: Mecha

text: The 1880 Jules Verne novel "The Steam House" ("La Maison à Vapeur") featured a steam-powered, piloted, mechanical elephant. One of the first appearances of such machines in modern literature was the tripod (or "fighting-machine", as they are known in the novel) of H. G. Wells' famous "The War of the Worlds" (1897). The novel does not contain a fully detailed description of the tripods' mode of locomotion, but it is hinted at: "Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool, imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand."


title: Mecha

text: "Ōgon Bat", a "kamishibai" that debuted in 1931 (later adapted into an anime in 1967), featured the first piloted humanoid giant robot, , but as an enemy rather than a protagonist. In 1934, Gajo Sakamoto launched on a metal creature that becomes a battle machine.


title: Mecha

text: The first humanoid giant robot piloted by the protagonist appeared in the manga in 1948. The manga and anime "Tetsujin 28-Go", introduced in 1956, featured a robot, Tetsujin, that was controlled externally by an operator by remote control. The manga and anime "Astro Boy", introduced in 1952, with its humanoid robot protagonist, was a key influence on the development of the giant robot genre in Japan. The first anime featuring a giant mecha being piloted by the protagonist from within a cockpit was the Super Robot show "Mazinger Z", written by Go Nagai and introduced in 1972. "Mazinger Z" introduced the notion of mecha as pilotable war machines, rather than remote-controlled robots. Ken Ishikawa and Go Nagai, later, introduced the concept of 'combination' (), where several units slot together to form a super robot, with "Getter Robo" (1974 debut).


title: Mecha

text: An early use of mech-like machines outside Japan is found in "The Invisible Empire", a "Federal Men"'s story arc by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (serialized 1936 in New Comics #8–10). Other examples include the Mexican comic "Invictus" Leonel Guillermo Prieto e Victaleno León, by Brazilian comic "Audaz, o demolidor", by Álvaro "Aruom" Moura and Messias de Mello (1938–1949), inspired by "Invictus", created for the supplement "A Gazetinha" from the newspaper "A Gazeta", Kimball Kinnison's battle suit in E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensman" novel "Galactic Patrol" (1950), the French animated film "The King and the Mockingbird" (first released 1952), and Robert Heinlein's waldo in his 1942 short story, "Waldo" and the Mobile Infantry battle suits in Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" (1958).


title: Mecha

text: A transforming mech can transform between a standard vehicle (such as a fighter plane or transport truck) and a fighting mecha robot. This concept of transforming mecha was pioneered by Japanese mecha designer Shōji Kawamori in the early 1980s, when he created the Diaclone toy line in 1980 and then the "Macross" anime franchise in 1982. In North America, the "Macross" franchise was adapted into the "Robotech" franchise in 1985, and then the Diaclone toy line was adapted into the "Transformers" franchise in 1986. Some of Kawamori's most iconic transforming mecha designs include the VF-1 Valkyrie from the "Macross" and "Robotech" franchises, and Optimus Prime (called Convoy in Japan) from the "Transformers" and "Diaclone" franchises.


title: Mecha

text: In Japan, "robot anime" (known as "mecha anime" outside Japan) is one of the oldest genres in anime. Robot anime is often tied in with toy manufacturers. Large franchises such as "Gundam", "Macross", "Transformers", and "Zoids" have hundreds of different model kits.


title: Mecha

text: The size of mecha can vary according to the story and concepts involved. Some of them may not be considerably taller than a tank ("Armored Trooper Votoms", "Megazone 23", "Code Geass"), some may be a few stories tall ("Gundam", "Escaflowne", "Bismark", "Gurren Lagann"), others can be as tall as a skyscraper ("Space Runaway Ideon", "Genesis of Aquarion", "Neon Genesis Evangelion"), some are big enough to contain an entire city ("Macross"), some the size of a planet ("Diebuster"), galaxies ("Getter Robo", "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann"), or even as large as universes ("Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen", "Demonbane", "Transformers: Alternity").


title: Mecha

text: The first giant robots seen were in the 1948 manga and Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 1956 manga "Tetsujin 28-go". However, it wasn't until the advent of Go Nagai's "Mazinger Z" that the genre was established. "Mazinger Z" innovated by adding the inclusion of futuristic weapons, and the concept of being able to pilot from a cockpit (rather than via remote control, in the case of Tetsujin). According to Go Nagai:


title: Mecha

text: "Mazinger Z" featured giant robots that were "piloted by means of a small flying car and command center that docked inside the head." It was also a pioneer in die-cast metal toys such as the Chogokin series in Japan and the Shogun Warriors in the U.S., that were (and still are) very popular with children and collectors.


title: Mecha

text: Robot/mecha anime and manga differ vastly in storytelling and animation quality from title to title, and content ranges from children's shows to ones intended for an older teen or adult audience.


title: Mecha

text: Some of the first mecha featured in manga and anime were super robots. The super robot genre features superhero-like giant robots that are often one-of-a-kind and the product of an ancient civilization, aliens or a mad genius. These robots are usually piloted by Japanese teenagers via voice command or neural uplink, and are often powered by mystical or exotic energy sources.


title: Mecha

text: The later real robot genre features robots that do not have mythical superpowers, but rather use largely conventional, albeit futuristic weapons and power sources, and are often mass-produced on a large scale for use in wars. The real robot genre also tends to feature more complex characters with moral conflicts and personal problems. The genre is therefore aimed primarily at young adults instead of children. "Mobile Suit Gundam" (1979) is largely considered the first series to introduce the real robot concept and, along with "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross" (1982), would form the basis of what people would later call real robot anime.


title: Mecha

text: Some robot mecha are capable of transformation ("Macross" and "Zeta Gundam") or combining to form even bigger ones ("Beast King GoLion" and "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann"), the latter called 'combination'. Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa are often credited with inventing this in 1974 with "Getter Robo".


title: Mecha

text: Not all mecha need to be completely mechanical. Some have biological components with which to interface with their pilots, and some are partially biological themselves, such as in "Neon Genesis Evangelion", "Eureka Seven", and "Zoids". "Attack on Titan" creator Hajime Isayama draws particular inspiration from the mecha visual novel "Muv-Luv" with its use of "pilots" controlling larger humanoid apparatus.


title: Mecha

text: Mecha based on anime have seen extreme cultural reception across the world. The personification of this popularity can be seen as 1:1-sized "Mazinger Z", Tetsujin, and Gundam statues built across the world.


title: Mecha

text: Mecha are often featured in computer and console video games. Because of their size and fictional power, mecha are quite popular subjects for games, both tabletop and electronic. They have been featured in video games since the 1980s, particularly in vehicular combat and shooter games, including Sesame Japan's side-scrolling shooter game "Vastar" in 1983, various "Gundam" games such as "" in 1984 and "" in 1986, the run and gun shooters "Hover Attack" in 1984 and "Thexder" in 1985, and Arsys Software's 3D role-playing shooters "WiBArm" in 1986 and "Star Cruiser" in 1988. Historically mecha-based games have been more popular in Japan than in other countries.


title: Mecha

text: There are a few real prototypes of mecha-like vehicles. Currently almost all of these are highly specialized or just for concept purpose, and as such may not see mass production. Most of these experimental projects were made and first presented in East Asia.


title: Mecha

text: In the Western world, there are few examples of mecha, however, several machines have been constructed by both companies and private figures.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vítor Machado Ferreira (born 13 February 2000), known as Vitinha (), is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Portugal national team.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Coming through Porto's youth system, Vitinha impressed during his time with the reserve team before being promoted to the first-team in 2020, winning a domestic double of the Primeira Liga and the Taça de Portugal in his first season. He was loaned to Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2020, before returning the following season. He established himself as an integral player for Porto winning a second domestic double, being named in the Primeira Liga Team of the Year and winning the Best Young Player of the Year award. In June 2022, he joined Paris Saint-Germain for a transfer worth €41.5 million.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vitinha is a former Portugal youth international, representing his country at various youth levels, being part of the under-19 and under-21 teams that finished as runners-up in the 2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship and 2021 European Under-21 Championship, respectively. He made his senior international debut in 2022, representing Portugal at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vitinha was born in Santo Tirso. He started playing football at Desportivo das Aves, where his father formerly played for the club, aged 7, before moving to Pinheirinhos de Ringe, where he started to stand out alongside goalkeeper and future teammate Diogo Costa. After going through some training sessions with Benfica, he was integrated into one of Benfica's feeder club Póvoa de Lanhoso, where he stayed for three years, before being dismissed because of his slight frame. Despite Sporting CP being interested in him, Vitinha ended up joining the youth ranks of FC Porto two years later, aged eleven, being subsquently loaned to Padroense for a season.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: He made his LigaPro debut for the reserve team on 11 August 2019 in a game against Sporting da Covilhã. He was also part of Porto's squad that won the 2018–19 UEFA Youth League. On 28 January 2020, Vitinha made his first appearance for the first team, coming on as a substitute for Wilson Manafá in the 61st minute in a match against Gil Vicente. He made a total of eight appearances as the club won the league title.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: On 9 September 2020, Vitinha moved on a season-long loan to English Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers. The club held an option to make the loan into permanent deal at its conclusion for a fee of €20 million, as Porto were forced to loan him due to UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations. He made his debut on 14 September away to Sheffield United as a second-half substitute, and his first start three days later in a home EFL Cup defeat to Stoke City.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vitinha made his full Premier League debut away to Manchester United on 29 December 2020, a game which Wolves lost narrowly to a deflection in added time. On 22 January, he scored his first goal for the club with a 35-yard strike in a 1–0 away win over non-League team Chorley in the fourth round of the FA Cup. At the end of the season, the club declined to exercise his buy option.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vitinha began the 2021–22 season on the bench, but following his impressive performances during the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, he began finding more and more space as a starter, scoring his first goal for the club in a 3–0 away win against Portimonense on 3 December. On 23 December, Vitinha impressed during the 3–0 home over rivals Benfica in "O Clássico" in the Taça de Portugal, scoring and assisting a goal, as he was named man of match. Shortly after Sérgio Oliveira departed to Roma in January 2022, Vitinha further consolidated his place as starter, impressing Porto's manager Sérgio Conceição, with his performances without the ball and his pressing, being named the league's Player of the Month and Midfielder of the Month for two consecutive months in December and January, a feat which he repeated in March.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: He would contribute to 47 appearances, with a goal in the 3–1 defeat of Tondela in the domestic cup final, to help Porto win the domestic double of the Primeira Liga and the Taça de Portugal, while also being named in the Primeira Liga Team of the Year and the Primeira Liga Best Young Player of the Year.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: On 30 June 2022, Vitinha signed a five-year contract with Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), for a reported fee of €41.5 million, after triggering the release clause of his contract. He made his debut for the club on 31 July, starting in PSG's 4–0 victory over Nantes in the Trophée des Champions, registering a 100% passing rate, completing 43 out of his 43 passes, while also being booked in the match and winning his first trophy with the club. Afterwards, his performances throughout the season were highly lauded, and he received various praises on the central midfield combination of him and Marco Verratti and for his quick adaption into his new team, despite fierce competition from more experienced players like Carlos Soler, Renato Sanches and Fabián Ruiz.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Having played at various youth levels for Portugal, Vitinha was named captain for the under-19 squad at the 2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Armenia, playing all five matches, scoring twice and assisting once as the team finished runners-up to Spain.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vitinha was named in the under-21 squad for the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. He was named for the team of the tournament as Portugal finished as runners-up after losing in the final 1–0 to Germany, on 6 June 2021.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: On 21 March 2022, Vitinha received his first call-up to the senior squad for the 2022 World Cup qualification play-offs, as a replacement for the injured Rúben Neves. Eight days later at his club ground, he made his senior national team debut, replacing João Moutinho in added time in a 2–0 victory over North Macedonia in the play-off final.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: In October, he was named in Portugal's preliminary 55-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, being included in the final 26-man squad for the tournament.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vitinha is a highly creative and technically gifted playmaker, with excellent dribbling skills and ball control, which allows him to operate effectively in a deep-seated playmaking role as a central midfielder, although he is also capable of playing in a more advanced role as an attacking midfielder. He is a central midfielder who enjoys taking the ball off the toe of his centre-back before distributing to a teammate near or far, but always with forward momentum in mind. His skill and quick control make it almost impossible for the opposition press to work when he is in possession. He is really good at progressing the ball and has the ability to get the ball into dangerous locations with his passes and is extremely quick with his feet and is good at evading players. He excels in counter-pressing, recovering and tackling. He is very quick-witted when it comes to creating counter-attacks right after winning the ball. Off the ball, he tries to prevent the opposition’s attacks, and when he is on the ball, he helps his side in retaining the ball as he has excellent on-the-ball composure. He is also very good at reading the game and intercepting the ball, when it comes to winning the ball back he knows when to strategically foul the opponent in order to slow down an attack.


title: Vitinha (footballer, born 2000)

text: Vitinha's father is Vítor Manuel, a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder for several clubs including his hometown's Desportivo das Aves for several years and Faro's Farense from 1999 to 2001.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: A Madea Homecoming is a 2022 American comedy film produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry and his second film to be released by Netflix. Besides Perry, the film stars Cassi Davis-Patton, David Mann, Tamela Mann, Gabrielle Dennis, and Brendan O'Carroll. It is the twelfth film in the "Madea" cinematic universe which tells the story of Madea partaking in her great-grandson's college graduation party as hidden secrets emerge and surprise visitors show up. It was released on February 25, 2022. It is adapted from Perry's stage play "Madea's Farewell Play", the first "Madea" film to be adapted from a stage play since "A Madea Christmas". The film is also a crossover between the "Madea" franchise and the Irish sitcom "Mrs. Brown's Boys".


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Other family members are getting ready for Tim's graduation celebration. Cora arrives with groceries and talks about how places in their neighborhood got burnt down in the riots. Laura arrives with divorce lawyer friend Sylvia.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Tim and Davi arrive with Tim's aunt Ellie in her police uniform. Joe tells her to get rid of it, saying police are criminals. She refuses, but later takes it off.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Agnes Brown and her daughter Cathy arrive and after doing the "Wakanda Forever" salute, thinking her hosts were true Africans, Cora slams the door on them before letting them in. Madea starts threatening Agnes until Davi explains she is his great-aunt. Agnes asks "Why do you all look like you have your knickers in a bunch?" but everyone mishears "knickers" as "niggers". She lifts her skirt to explain that "knickers" are underwear.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: They go to dinner at Red Lobster, where Cora gives Brown candy from Madea's purse for his blood sugar levels. Madea irritates Cora by reminiscing about her days as a stripper. Madea tries to show the restaurant is full of strippers by shouting a line from "Up", whereupon nearly all of the women reply. Joe arrives wearing Black Lives Matter memorabilia and resumes insulting Ellie over her police job. Back at the house Tim's father Richard has been waiting. Madea fires her gun without warning, making Joe defecate in his leather pants.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: While washing dishes Laura tells Agnes she is confused that Davi, after graduation, will return to Ireland to take over his grandfather's farm.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Tim makes an announcement, coming out as gay. Everyone says they already knew. Sylvia reveals she has been secretly dating Richard. Madea orders Richard and Sylvia to leave at gunpoint.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Seeing Mr. Brown and Agnes acting strangely, Cora tells Madea she gave them candy from her purse. Madea reveals it was marijuana. Mr. Brown, as "The Brown Panther", jumps off the roof in his underwear with a bed sheet cape and knocks himself out.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Laura and Ellie are discussing Richard and Sylvia when Madea claims her roommate Rosa Parks stole her boyfriend in 1955, inadvertently setting off the Montgomery bus boycott and the Civil Rights movement as a whole.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: The next morning, when Agnes apologizes Madea says she will give her the recipe for the chocolate marijuana. Tensions rise when Richard and Sylvia come back to the barbecue. Davi fights with Richard and Richard hits Laura by accident. Davi reveals he has been seeing Laura and proposes to her. She declines.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Laura tells Ellie of her confusion that Davi is returning to Ireland. Ellie questions the reason Laura declined Davi's proposal. Tim rejects Davi's apology. Madea tells Laura to feel okay about the drama and apologize and convinces Tim to forgive Davi. At the graduation, Tim rips up his prepared speech and speaks about his family, apologizing to Davi and Laura, and crediting all his family for their love and support. When he gives credit to his father Richard, Madea interrupts to insult Richard.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: The family congratulates Tim and Davi, Tim having told Davi he approves of his relationship with Laura. Davi proposes again to Laura who says yes. Agnes gives him her blessing, revealing that his grandfather need not know as he's in prison for sleeping with a sheep in a hotel. Agnes and Cathy prepare to return to Ireland. Madea says she can't accept Agnes' invitation to visit because "there is too much sand", having confused Ireland with Iran the whole time.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: After originally planning to retire the Madea character after "A Madea Family Funeral" and "Madea's Farewell Play", Tyler Perry later reverted these plans on a joint announcement with Netflix announcing Madea's return to film. Filming took place at Tyler Perry Studios in June 2021.


title: A Madea Homecoming

text: Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 42 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Endorphins

text: Endorphins (contracted from endogenous morphine) are chemical signals in the brain that block the perception of pain and increase feelings of wellbeing. They are produced and stored in an area of the brain known as the pituitary gland.


title: Endorphins

text: Opioid peptides in the brain were first discovered in 1973 by investigators at the University of Aberdeen, John Hughes and Hans Kosterlitz. They isolated "enkephalins" (from the Greek , "") from pig brain, identified as Met-enkephalin and Leu-enkephalin. This came after the discovery of a receptor that was proposed to produce the pain-relieving analgesic effects of morphine and other opioids, which led Kosterlitz and Hughes to their discovery of the endogenous opioid ligands. Research during this time was focused on the search for a painkiller that did not have the addictive character or overdose risk of morphine.


title: Endorphins

text: Rabi Simantov and Solomon H. Snyder isolated morphine-like peptides from calf brain. Eric J. Simon, who independently discovered opioid receptors, would later term these peptides as endorphins. This term was essentially assigned to any peptide that demonstrated morphine-like activity. In 1976, Choh Hao Li and David Chung recorded the sequences of α-, β-, and γ-endorphin isolated from camel pituitary glands for their opioid activity. They identified that β-endorphin produced strong analgesic effects. Wilhelm Feldberg and Derek George Smyth in 1977 confirmed this claim, finding β-endorphin to be much stronger than morphine. In addition, they found that it is completely removed from opiate receptors by naloxone, an identified morphine antagonist.


title: Endorphins

text: Studies have subsequently distinguished between enkephalins, endorphins, and endogenously produced morphine, which is not a peptide. Opioid peptides are classified based on their precursor propeptide: all endorphins are synthesized from the precursor proopiomelanocortin (POMC), encoded by proenkephalin A, and dynorphins encoded by pre-dynorphin.


title: Endorphins

text: The word "endorphin" is derived from / meaning "within" (endogenous, / , "proceeding from within"), and morphine, from Morpheus (), the god of dreams in the Greek mythology. Thus, endorphin is a contraction of 'endo(genous) (mo)rphin' (morphin being the old spelling of morphine).


title: Endorphins

text: The class of endorphins consists of three endogenous opioid peptides: α-endorphin, β-endorphin, and γ-endorphin. The endorphins are all synthesized from the precursor protein, proopiomelanocortin, and all contain a Met-enkephalin motif at their N-terminus: Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Met. α-endorphin and γ-endorphin result from proteolytic cleavage of β-endorphin between the Thr(16)-Leu(17) residues and Leu(17)-Phe(18) respectively. α-endorphin has the shortest sequence, and β-endorphin has the longest sequence.


title: Endorphins

text: α-endorphin and γ-endorphin are primarily found in the anterior and intermediate pituitary. While β-endorphin is studied for its opioid activity, α-endorphin and γ-endorphin both lack affinity for opiate receptors and thus do not affect the body in the same way that β-endorphin does. Some studies have characterized α-endorphin activity as similar to that of psychostimulants and γ-endorphin activity to that neuroleptics separately.


title: Endorphins

text: Endorphin precursors are primarily produced in the pituitary gland. All three types of endorphins are fragments of the precursor protein proopiomelanocortin (POMC). At the trans-Golgi network, POMC binds to a membrane-bound protein, carboxypeptidase E (CPE). CPE facilitates POMC transport into immature budding vesicles. In mammals, pro-peptide convertase 1 (PC1) cleaves POMC into adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and beta-lipotropin (β-LPH). β-LPH, a pituitary hormone with little opiate activity, is then continually fragmented into different peptides, including α-endorphin, β-endorphin, and γ-endorphin. Peptide convertase 2 (PC2) is responsible for cleaving β-LPH into β-endorphin and γ-lipotropin. Formation of α-endorphin and γ-endorphin results from proteolytic cleavage of β-endorphin.


title: Endorphins

text: Noradrenaline has been shown to increase endorphins production within inflammatory tissues, resulting in an analgesic effect; the stimulation of sympathetic nerves by electro-acupuncture is believed to be the cause of its analgesic effects.


title: Endorphins

text: Endorphins are released from the pituitary gland, typically in response to pain, and can act in both the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). In the PNS, β-endorphin is the primary endorphin released from the pituitary gland. Endorphins inhibit transmission of pain signals by binding μ-receptors of peripheral nerves, which block their release of neurotransmitter substance P. The mechanism in the CNS is similar but works by blocking a different neurotransmitter: gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). In turn, inhibition of GABA increases the production and release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with reward learning.


title: Endorphins

text: Endorphins play a major role in the body's inhibitory response to pain. Research has demonstrated that meditation by trained individuals can be used to trigger endorphin release. Laughter may also stimulate endorphin production and elevate one's pain threshold.


title: Endorphins

text: Endorphin production can be triggered by vigorous aerobic exercise. The release of β-endorphin has been postulated to contribute to the phenomenon known as a "runner's high." However, several studies have supported the hypothesis that the runner's high is due to the release of endocannabinoids rather than that of endorphins. Endorphins may contribute to the positive effect of exercise on anxiety and depression. The same phenomenon may also play a role in exercise addiction. Regular intense exercise may cause the brain to downregulate the production of endorphins in periods of rest to maintain homeostasis, causing a person to exercise more intensely in order to receive the same feeling.


title: Connect Four

text: Connect Four (also known as Connect 4, Four Up, Plot Four, Find Four, Captain's Mistress, Four in a Row, Drop Four, and Gravitrips in the Soviet Union) is a two-player connection board game, in which the players choose a color and then take turns dropping colored tokens into a seven-column, six-row vertically suspended grid. The pieces fall straight down, occupying the lowest available space within the column. The objective of the game is to be the first to form a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of four of one's own tokens. Connect Four is a solved game. The first player can always win by playing the right moves.


title: Connect Four

text: A gameplay example (right), shows the first player starting Connect Four by dropping one of their yellow discs into the center column of an empty game board. The two players then alternate turns dropping one of their discs at a time into an unfilled column, until the second player, with red discs, achieves a diagonal four in a row, and wins the game. If the board fills up before either player achieves four in a row, then the game is a draw.


title: Connect Four

text: Connect Four is a two-player game with perfect information for both sides, meaning that nothing is hidden from anyone. Connect Four also belongs to the classification of an adversarial, zero-sum game, since a player's advantage is an opponent's disadvantage.


title: Connect Four

text: One measure of complexity of the Connect Four game is the number of possible games board positions. For classic Connect Four played on a 7-column-wide, 6-row-high grid, there are 4,531,985,219,092 positions for all game boards populated with 0 to 42 pieces.


title: Connect Four

text: The game was first solved by James Dow Allen (October 1, 1988), and independently by Victor Allis (October 16, 1988). Allis describes a knowledge-based approach, with nine strategies, as a solution for Connect Four. Allen also describes winning strategies in his analysis of the game. At the time of the initial solutions for Connect Four, brute-force analysis was not deemed feasible given the game's complexity and the computer technology available at the time.


title: Connect Four

text: Connect Four has since been solved with brute-force methods, beginning with John Tromp's work in compiling an 8-ply database (February 4, 1995). The artificial intelligence algorithms able to strongly solve Connect Four are minimax or negamax, with optimizations that include alpha-beta pruning, move ordering, and transposition tables. The code for solving Connect Four with these methods is also the basis for the Fhourstones integer performance benchmark.


title: Connect Four

text: The solved conclusion for Connect Four is first-player-win. With perfect play, the first player can force a win, on or before the 41st move by starting in the middle column. The game is a theoretical draw when the first player starts in the columns adjacent to the center. For the edges of the game board, column 1 and 2 on left (or column 7 and 6 on right), the exact move-value score for first player start is loss on the 40th move, and loss on the 42nd move, respectively. In other words, by starting with the four outer columns, the first player allows the second player to force a win.


title: Connect Four

text: There are many variations of Connect Four with differing game board sizes, game pieces, and gameplay rules. Many variations are popular with game theory and artificial intelligence research, rather than with physical game boards and gameplay by persons.


title: Connect Four

text: The most commonly-used Connect Four board size is 7 columns × 6 rows. Size variations include 5×4, 6×5, 8×7, 9×7, 10×7, 8×8, Infinite Connect-Four, and Cylinder-Infinite Connect-Four.


title: Connect Four

text: Several versions of Hasbro's Connect Four physical gameboard make it easy to remove game pieces from the bottom one at a time. Along with traditional gameplay, this feature allows for variations of the game. Some earlier game versions also included specially-marked discs, and cardboard column extenders, for additional variations to the game.


title: Connect Four

text: "PopOut" starts the same as traditional gameplay, with an empty board and players alternating turns placing their own colored discs into the board. During each turn, a player can either add another disc from the top, or if one has any discs of their own color on the bottom row, remove (or "pop out") a disc of one's own color from the bottom. Popping a disc out from the bottom drops every disc above it down one space, changing their relationship with the rest of the board and changing the possibilities for a connection. The first player to connect four of their discs horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins the game.


title: Connect Four

text: Before play begins, "Pop 10" is set up differently from the traditional game. Taking turns, each player places one of their own color discs into the slots filling up only the bottom row, then moving on to the next row until it is filled, and so forth until all rows have been filled.


title: Connect Four

text: Gameplay works by players taking turns removing a disc of one's own color through the bottom of the board. If the disc that was removed was part of a four-disc connection at the time of its removal, the player sets it aside out of play and immediately takes another turn. If it was not part of a "connect four", then it must be placed back on the board through a slot at the top into any open space in an alternate column (whenever possible) and the turn ends, switching to the other player. The first player to set aside ten discs of their color wins the game.


title: Connect Four

text: The "Five-in-a-Row" variation for Connect Four is a game played on a 6 high, 9 wide grid. Two additional board columns, already filled with player pieces in an alternating pattern, are added to the left and right sides of the standard 6-by-7 game board. The game plays similarly to the original Connect Four, except players must now get five pieces in a row to win. This is still a 42-ply game since the two new columns added to the game represent twelve game pieces already played, before the start of a game.


title: Connect Four

text: In this variation of Connect Four, players begin a game with one or more specially-marked "Power Checkers" game pieces, which each player may choose to play once per game. When playing a piece marked with an anvil icon, for example, the player may immediately pop out all pieces below it, leaving the anvil piece at the bottom row of the game board. Other marked game pieces include one with a wall icon, allowing a player to play a second consecutive non-winning turn with an unmarked piece; a "×2" icon, allowing for an unrestricted second turn with an unmarked piece; and a bomb icon, allowing a player to immediately pop out an opponent's piece.


title: Connect Four

text: Hasbro also produces various sizes of Giant Connect Four, suitable for outdoor use. The largest is built from weather-resistant wood, and measures 120 cm in both width and height. Connect Four was released for the Microvision video game console in 1979, developed by Robert Hoffberg. It was also released for the Texas Instruments 99/4 computer the same year.


title: Connect Four

text: With the proliferation of mobile devices, Connect Four has regained popularity as a game that can be played quickly and against another person over an Internet connection.


title: Connect Four

text: In 2007, Milton Bradley published Connect Four Stackers. Instead of the usual grid, the game features a board to place colored discs on. Just like standard Connect Four, the object of the game is to try get four in a row of a specific color of discs.


title: Connect Four

text: In 2008, another board variation Hasbro published as a physical game is Connect 4x4. This game features a two-layer vertical grid with colored discs for four players, plus blocking discs. The object of the game is also to get four in a row for a specific color of discs.


title: Connect Four

text: A "SpongeBob SquarePants" version of the game was released in 2009 for the show's 10th anniversary. The rules are the same as the normal version; the chips have the faces of SpongeBob and Patrick on them. It was re-released in 2014, but with Patrick being replaced with Plankton.


title: Connect Four

text: In 2013, Bay Tek Games released a Connect Four ticket redemption arcade game under license from Hasbro. There are standard and deluxe versions of the game. Two players move and drop the checkers using buttons. If only one player is playing, the player plays against the computer. Both the player that wins and the player that loses get tickets. The player that wins gets to play a bonus round where a checker is moving and the player needs to press the button at the right time to get the ticket jackpot.


title: Connect Four

text: In 2015 Winning Moves published Connect Four Twist & Turn. This game variant features a game tower instead of the flat game grid. The tower has five rings that twist independently. Gameplay is similar to standard Connect Four where players try to get four in a row of their own colored discs. However, with Twist & Turn, players have the choice to twist a ring after they have played a piece. It adds a subtle layer of strategy to the gameplay.


title: Connect Four

text: In 2018, Bay Tek Games released their second Connect Four arcade game, Connect 4 Hoops. Players throw basketballs into basketball hoops, and they show up as checkers on the video screen. The game can be played by two players, or by one player against the computer. Both the player that wins and the player that loses get tickets.


title: Connect Four

text: In 2018, Hasbro released Connect 4 Shots. This version requires the players to bounce coloured balls into the grid until one player achieves four in a row.


title: Micronation

text: A micronation is a political entity whose members claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by world governments or major international organizations. Micronations are classified separately from de facto states and quasi-states; they are also not considered to be autonomous nor self-governing as they lack the legal basis in international law for their existence. Micronations' activities are almost always trivial enough to be ignored rather than challenged by the established nations whose territory they claim—referred to in micronationalism as "macronations." Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals and other state-related items, some as a source of revenue. Motivations for the creation of micronations include theoretical experimentation, political protest, artistic expression, personal entertainment and the conduct of criminal activity. The study of micronationalism is known as micropatriology or micropatrology.


title: Micronation

text: Although several historical states have been retroactively called micronations, the concept was formulated in the 1970s, with a particular influence from the International Micropatrological Society. Micronationalism saw several developments thereafter, with several micronations being founded in Australia in the 1970s and a "micronations boom" in Japan in the 1980s. As a result of the emergence of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, micronationalism lost much of its traditionally eccentric anti-establishment sentiment in favour of more hobbyist perspectives, and the number of exclusively online or merely simulation-based micronations expanded dramatically. This has allowed several intermicronational organisations to form, as well as allow for numerous diplomatic summits to take place since the 2000s.


title: Micronation

text: Micronations are aspirant states that claim independence but lack legal recognition by world governments or major international organisations. Micronations are classified separately from states with limited recognition and quasi-states, nor are they considered to be autonomous nor self-governing as they lack the legal basis in international law for their existence. While some are secessionist in nature, most micronations are widely regarded as sovereignty projects that instead seek to mimic a sovereign state rather than to achieve international recognition, and their activities are almost always trivial enough to be ignored rather than challenged by the established nations whose territory they claim—referred to as a "macronation" in micronationalism. Some micronations admit to having no intention of actually becoming internationally recognised as sovereign. Geographically, most micronations are very small, are often the outgrowth of a single individual, rely on their sovereign state to some extent, and mimic sovereign states by creating their own government, legislation, proclaiming national symbols, holding national elections and engaging in diplomacy with other micronations. While most micronations claim sovereignty over physical territory, others are based solely around the Internet or do not claim sovereignty at all, a hobbyist paradigm of micronationalism that arose with the rise of the Internet from the mid-1990s onwards.


title: Micronation

text: In 2021, legal academics Harry Hobbs and George Williams, in their "Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty", defined micronations as:


title: Micronation

text: Online dictionary "Collins English Dictionary", published by HarperCollins, gives a similar definition:


title: Micronation

text: Several historical political entities have been retroactively described as "micronations" in academic and journalistic works, including the Islands of Refreshment (existed 1811–16), Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia (since 1860), State of Scott (1861–1986), Republic of Parva Domus Magna Quies (since 1878), and the more contemporaneous Kingdom of Elleore (since 1944), Republic of Saugeais (since 1947), Principality of Outer Baldonia (1949–1973) and Sultanate of M'Simbati (1959–).


title: Micronation

text: Several entities that can be considered micronations by contemporary standards were established throughout the 1960s and early 1970s and based on ideals of libertarianism and many of them created via seasteading.


title: Micronation

text: New Atlantis was founded in 1964 by writer Leicester Hemingway, claiming a bamboo raft that he had constructed with steel, iron piping and rock. Hemingway had it towed off the coast of Jamaica and argued that it was technically an island and fully sovereign based on the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Although Hemingway had plans to expand the raft, it was destroyed in 1966 by tropical storms, and the project was completely abandoned in 1973. In 1967, Paddy Roy Bates squatted on HM Fort Roughs, an offshore platform in the North Sea used during World War II approximately off the coast of the United Kingdom. Bates had intended to broadcast a pirate radio station from the platform, however ultimately never did so. He instead declared the independence of Fort Roughs and deemed it the Principality of Sealand. Bates died in 2012, and Michael Bates has since succeeded him as Prince of Sealand. The Republic of Rose Island, an artificial platform constructed in 1968 by Italian architect Giorgio Rosa in the Adriatic Sea, was originally built as a tourist attraction, but Rosa soon declared it as sovereign. The micronation had its own currency, a post office and commercial establishments. In 1969, the Italian Navy used explosives to destroy the facility, claiming it was a ploy to raise money from tourists while avoiding national taxation. The Republic of Minerva was a libertarian project that succeeded in building a small, artificial island on the Minerva Reefs in 1972 by importing sand. It was invaded by troops from Tonga that same year, who annexed it before destroying the island. During its brief existence, Minerva was a media sensation.


title: Micronation

text: The International Micropatrological Society (IMS), an American learned society and research institute, was founded in 1973 and dedicated to the study of micronations, a discipline it named "micropatrology". By 1976, it had documents pertaining to 128 micronations and similar political entities. The earliest attested use of "micronation" in its current meaning appeared on 28 March 1976 in an article by "the New York Times" about the IMS. The first use of "micronation" in a book was in an eponymous dedicated section of the 1978 "The People's Almanac #2" by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace. In 1979, the first book about micronations, "How to Start Your Own Country", was published by Erwin S. Strauss. The IMS contributed considerably to the work. However, the word "micronation" is notably absent from the book. A second edition of the work was published in 1984 by Loompanics, followed in 1999 by a third edition published by Paladin Press. According to the Yearbook of International Organizations, the IMS was disestablished in 1988.


title: Micronation

text: Australia has a disproportionate number of micronations compared to other countries. The first micronation founded within Australia was the Principality of Hutt River in 1970. It was declared independent by farmer Leonard Casley over a dispute concerning wheat production quotas. In 2017, the Supreme Court of Western Australia ordered that Casley pay $2.7 million in unpaid tax, and that his son Arthur Casley pay $242,000 in unpaid tax. Casley abdicated in 2017 in favour of his son Graeme. Leonard died in 2019, and Hutt River dissolved the following year amidst continued disputes with the Australian Taxation Office as well as the financial impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1976, the Province of Bumbunga was declared by Alec Brackstone in response to the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Brackstone, an ardent British monarchist, became alarmed by what he saw as a drift away from the Australian system of constitutional monarchy toward outright republicanism. Thus, to ensure that at least one portion of Australia would remain loyal to the British Crown, Bumbunga was declared.


title: Micronation

text: The Sovereign State of Aeterna Lucina was proclaimed in 1978 by German migrant Paul Neuman. Aeterna Lucina came to public attention in 1990 when Neuman faced fraud charges in the New South Wales court system relating to land sale offences; the case was abandoned in 1992. In 1979, the Independent State of Rainbow Creek was declared by Thomas Barnes in protest of alleged incompetence by the Government of Victoria in regards to the flooding of his and others' properties. He was inspired by Hutt River. The Grand Duchy of Avram was established in Tasmania in the early 1980s by politician John Charlton Rudge, and issues its own banknotes. In recognition of his status, Rudge legally changed his name to John the Duke of Avram. In 1981, the Empire of Atlantium was founded in Sydney as a non-territorial global government based on the ideals of secularism, progressivism and liberalism. Among the causes Atlantium supports are the right to unrestricted international freedom of movement, the right to abortion, and the right to assisted suicide.


title: Micronation

text: In 1981, drawing on a news report about Leicester Hemingway's "New Atlantis", novelist Hisashi Inoue wrote a 700-page work of magic realism, "Kirikirijin", about a village that secedes from Japan and proclaims its bumpkinish, marginalized dialect its national language, and its subsequent war of independence. This single-handedly inspired a large number of Japanese villages, mostly in the northern regions, to "declare independence", generally as a move to raise awareness of their unique culture and crafts for urban Japanese who saw village life as backwards and uncultured. These micronations even held intermicronational summits beetween 1983 and 1985, and some of them formed confederations and intermicronational organisations. The Ginko Federation held an intermicronational Olympic games in 1986. However, the economic impact of the Japanese asset price bubble in 1991 ended the boom. Many of the villages were forced to merge with larger cities, and the micronations and confederations were generally dissolved.


title: Micronation

text: The Free Republic of Wendland was a protest camp established in Gorleben, West Germany in 1980 in order to protest against the establishment of a nuclear waste dump at the site. The residents created a border checkpoint and built a temporary village with more than 100 huts, ranging from elaborate round houses to tents. After 33 days, the local police moved in and evicted the camp. Also in 1980, the Independent State of Aramoana was declared by residents of the eponymous settlement during the Save Aramoana Campaign, which was opposed to the proposed construction of an aluminium smelter at Aramoana in New Zealand. This was because the project called for the destruction of the villages of Aramoana and Te Ngaru, and also threatened a local wildlife reserve. The project was ultimately abandoned in the early 1980s, and the micronation of Aramoana peacefully reintegrated into New Zealand.


title: Micronation

text: The Conch Republic was founded by local residents of the Florida Keys in 1982 after the United States Border Patrol set up a roadblock and inspection point on one of the only two roads connecting the Florida Keys with the mainland. The Key West City Council complained repeatedly about the inconvenience, claiming that it hurt the Keys' tourism industry. Though the roadblock was soon removed, the claim to sovereignty of the Conch Republic has persisted as a tongue-in-cheek venture meant to booster tourism. In 1986, the Kingdom of North Dumpling was declared by inventor Dean Kamen after a denial from local officials to build his own wind turbine on North Dumpling Island, which Kamen privately owns. Kamen wrote his own constitution and created a flag, currency and national anthem for the micronation. In 1992, despite still being recognised as part of the United States, Kamen was able to leverage his personal relationship with then-president George H. W. Bush to sign an unofficial non-aggression pact.


title: Micronation

text: Several conceptual art projects with micronational claims arose in the 1990s, usually as a means to challenge the idea of statehood.


title: Micronation

text: In 1991, Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), a Slovenian political art collective, declared independence. NSK describes itself as a "State in Time," claiming no territory in order to be a "stateless state." Elgaland-Vargaland is a conceptual art project founded in 1992 by Swedish artists Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren. According to them, everyone who dies is automatically granted citizenship. Among Elgaland-Vargaland's territorial claims include graveyards, people's mental states and "the distance between high tide and low tide" of France. They also claim to operate embassies around the world. In 1996, Swedish artist Lars Vilks proclaimed the Royal Republic of Ladonia as a result of a court battle between local authorities over Vilks' illegal construction of two sculptures in the natural reserve of Kullaberg in southern Sweden. Ladonia's claim of independence has since persisted following Vilks' death in 2021, with Carolyn Shelby serving as Queen since 2011. In 1997, the neighbourhood of Užupis in Vilnius, Lithuania declared tongue-in-cheek independence as a republic consisting of laidback artists.


title: Micronation

text: In the mid-1990s, the emerging popularity of the World Wide Web made it possible for anyone to create their own virtual state-like entity with relative ease, and many micronations launched their own websites. As a result, micronationalism lost much of its traditionally eccentric anti-establishment sentiment in favour of more hobbyist perspectives, and the number of exclusively online or merely simulation-based micronations expanded dramatically. Intermicronational organisations were also established, with the League of Secessionist States, originally founded in 1980 by the Kingdom of Talossa, and the United Micronations being at the forefront. The French Institute of Micropatrology ("l'Institut français de micropatrologie") was founded in 1996 by Swiss author Fabrice O'Driscoll of Aix-Marseille University to study this phenomenon. Other online micronational services during the 1990s included MicroWorld, a monthly micronational magazine, and alt.politics.micronations, a Usenet newsgroup dedicated to discussions regarding micronationalism. In 2000, O'Driscoll published his book "Ils ne siègent pas à l'ONU: revue de quelques micro-Etats, micro-nations et autres entités éphémères" (They don't sit at the UN: a review of some micro-states, micro-nations and other ephemeral entities), which details over 600 micronations.


title: Micronation

text: In 2000, the Republic of Molossia and the erstwhile Kingdom of TorHavn hosted an Intermicronational Olympic Games online to coincide with the 2000 Summer Olympics. Six micronations competed and were asked to record their performances then report it to a Molossian message board. In 2003, the "First Summit of Micronations" summit commenced in Helsinki, Finland, coinciding with a performance art festival called Amorph!03. Six micronations were represented. An art exhibition exhibiting various micronational miscellanea, "We Could Have Invited Everyone", occurred in 2004 and 2005 at the Reg Vardy Gallery, University of Sunderland, England and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York City, United States respectively. The items were featured alongside artwork by artists including Yoko Ono and Nina Katchadourian. Both exhibitions coincided with an intermicronational summit. In 2005, the six-part BBC comedy-documentary series "How to Start Your Own Country" aired on BBC Two, in which comedian Danny Wallace attempts to create his own country in his apartment in Bow, London. The micronation he created was eventually named the Kingdom of Lovely. The following year, the travel guide company Lonely Planet published a light-hearted guide to numerous micronations titled "".


title: Micronation

text: In 2007, two self-proclaimed princesses of the Sunda Democratic Empire, sisters Puteri Lamia Roro Wiranata and Puteri Fathia Reza, were detained by Malaysian immigration authorities for attempting to enter from Brunei using diplomatic passports from the Sunda Empire. They claimed to be the princesses of the historical Sunda Empire and that their parents were in "exile." In early 2008, they were freed by the Sessions Court, but maintained their claim of Sundan citizenship, thus making them ineligible for deportation to Indonesia. The Malaysian authorities subsequently deemed them stateless individuals, and they were interned at an immigration depot under supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.


title: Micronation

text: In 2010, the documentary film "How to Start Your Own Country", directed by Jody Shapiro, was screened as part of the 35th Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary explored various micronations around the world, and included an analysis of the concept of statehood, seasteading and citizenship. The film was inspired by Erwin Strauss' eponymous book. Also that same year, an intermicronational summit, PoliNation 2010, was held at Dangar Island in Sydney, Australia. It was organised by Judy Lattas of Macquarie University, Princess Paula of the Principality of Snake Hill and George Cruickshank of the Empire of Atlantium. Between 2013 and 2014, two Aboriginal Australian nations declared independence from Australia as part of the concept of Australian Aboriginal sovereignty—first the Murrawarri Republic, comprising the Muruwari, in 2013, and the Sovereign Yidindji Government, comprising the Yidindji, in 2014. In both cases, the declarations of independence went wholly unrecognised by the Government of Australia.


title: Micronation

text: In 2015, the first convention of the biannual MicroCon was held in Anaheim, California, United States. Hosted by the Republic of Molossia, several presentations were held by micronationalists regarding various topics in micronationalism. The "Organisation de la microfrancophonie", a French intermicronational organisation, was founded in 2015. The organisation organised its first summit in 2016, hosted by the Principality of Aigues-Mortes. In 2018, the Principality of Islandia was established by two individuals aiming to build a crowdfunded micronation. Successfully purchasing the uninhabited Coffee Caye in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Belize in 2019, Prime Minister of Belize John Briceño dismissed the project in 2022, calling them "stupid" and stating "We will never allow anybody to have their own country within this country [Belize] - what a stupid thing. If you stupid enough to pay a lot of money to buy [a] piece of land, good for you."


title: Micronation

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020, several micronations imposed their own restrictions, mimicking countries. Some inactive Internet-based micronations also returned to activity as people were commanded to stay home and quarantine. In 2020, Netflix released the film "Rose Island", based on the story of engineer Giorgio Rosa and the Republic of Rose Island. In 2021, academics Harry Hobbs and George Williams published "Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty", a book exploring various aspects of micronationalism. It was published by Cambridge University Press. A follow-up book on micronations by Hobbs and Williams, entitled "", was published in 2022 by the University of New South Wales Press. Also in 2022, illusionist Uri Geller purchased Lamb, an uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland, and declared it independent as the Republic of Lamb. Geller offers citizenship, with proceeds going to Save a Child's Heart, an Israeli charity.


title: Micronation

text: While most micronations claim land they can administer, often private property, some have made claimants to uninhabitable tracts of land. For instance, some micronations have claimed Bir Tawil and Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica, lands which are "terra nullius"—unclaimed by any other sovereign state. Several others have also made claimants to other portions of Antarctica. Examples are the Grand Duchy of Westarctica and Grand Duchy of Flandrensis. However, due to Antartica's remoteness, no micronation has yet to establish a permanent residence on the continent. On the other hand, at least one micronationalist has physically reached Bir Tawil; in June 2014, Virginian farmer Jeremiah Heaton travelled to the area and proclaimed the Kingdom of North Sudan. Heaton stated that he claimed the territory in order to fulfil a promise to his daughter to make her a princess, however Heaton has appeared to have other motivations, offering several initiatives—such as the implementation of a national currency and the construction of an international airport and capital city—via crowdfunding.


title: Micronation

text: Other micronational claimants have been made to small pockets on the west bank of the Danube between Serbia and Croatia. Some micronationalists argue that the land is "terra nullius" because Croatia states the pockets are Serbian, whilst Serbia makes no claims on the land. However, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has rejected these claims, stating that the differing border claims between Serbia and Croatia do not involve "terra nullius", and are not subject to occupation by a third party. The most prominent example is the Free Republic of Liberland, which was proclaimed in April 2015 by Czech right-libertarian politician and activist Vít Jedlička, and claims the largest pocket Gornja Siga. The land lacks infrastructure and lies on the floodplain of the Danube.


title: Micronation

text: Some micronations have attempted to establish themselves in international waters—parts of the sea that cannot be claimed by any sovereign state—by seasteading. This involves the creation of permanent dwellings at sea. In 1964, writer Leicester Hemingway built a bamboo raft with steel, iron piping and rock, and had it towed off the coast of Jamaica. Hemingway declared it an independent constitutional republic called New Atlantis, arguing that his raft was technically an island and based his sovereignty on the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Although Hemingway had plans to expand the raft, it was destroyed in 1966 by tropical storms. By 1973, Hemingway had completely abandoned the project. Operation Atlantis, another example, was a project started in 1968 by Werner Stiefel, aiming to establish a new, libertarian nation in international waters via seasteading. The operation launched a ferrocement boat on the Hudson River in December 1971, piloting it to an area near the Bahamas with the intent to permanently anchor it as their territory. Upon reaching its destination, however, it sank in a hurricane. After a number of subsequent failed attempts to construct a habitable sea platform and achieve sovereign status, the project was abandoned in 1976. Another seasteading micronation was the Republic of Rose Island in the Adriatic Sea.


title: Micronation

text: The Space Kingdom of Asgardia, founded in October 2016, claims an artificial satellite that orbited the Earth. Named Asgardia-1, the two-unit CubeSat was successfully launched by Orbital ATK in November 2017 as part of an International Space Station resupply mission. Asgardia-1 reportedly re-entered the atmosphere in September 2022. The Nation of Celestial Space claims all of outer space, whilst the Empire of Angyalistan lays claim to garbage patches around the world's oceans in protest against their existence.


title: Micronation

text: Micronations function in the same way as sovereign states in that they have their own government, constitution, legislation, and (if a democracy) hold national elections. Micronations often have national symbols such as a flag, coat of arms or seal, motto and anthem, and many micronations also issue coins, banknotes, stamps, passports, passport stamps, orders of merit and bestow honours and titles of nobility, although these are not recognised internationally. Some micronations have made profits by selling these items as souvenirs and memorabilia to tourists and via their national websites, and others have even sold citizenship and titles of nobility. Sone micronational coinage and stamps, if professionally made, have become valued as collector's items by numismatists and philatelists (stamp collectors) alike. In addition, both Sealand and Seborga have their own national association football teams. The Sealand national football team was founded in 2004 and became an associate member of the N.F.-Board, a federation made up of unrecognised states, stateless peoples, regions and micronations that are not allowed to join FIFA, in 2006. The Seborga national football team was founded in 2014, and is run by the Football Federation of the Principality of Seborga.


title: Micronation

text: Like countries, micronations engage in intermicronational diplomacy with one another. This includes the signing of treaties, non-aggression pacts and intermicronational conventions, diplomatic missions and declarations of war. Several intermicronational organisations also exist, with some having as many as 80 member states. Most of these organisations generally work to maintain peace, strengthen micronational cooperation and to improve diplomatic relations between member states. Due to the large number of such organisations existing and operating soley online, with many having a similar purpose, the disparaging epithet "YAMO" (an acronym for the phrase "Yet Another Micronational Organisation") is commonly used in the intermicronational community in criticism of such organisations.


title: Micronation

text: Intermicronational summits are also commonplace within the micronational community, and several reoccurring summits have taken place. These include the sporadic PoliNation, biannual MicroCon; and the "Organisation de la microfrancophonie" has hosted three intermicronational summits between its member states. PoliNation 2010 was held at Dangar Island, Sydney, Australia and was organised by Judy Lattas of Macquarie University, Princess Paula of the Principality of Snake Hill and George Cruickshank of the Empire of Atlantium. PoliNation 2012 was held in London, United Kingdom, and PoliNation 2015 commenced at Umbria, Italy. MicroCon 2015 was held in Anaheim, California and hosted by Molossia; MicroCon 2017 in Tucker, Georgia by the Kingdom of Ruritania; MicroCon 2019 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada by the Kingdom of Slabovia; and MicroCon 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada by Westarctica, having been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With 113 attendees, MicroCon 2019 claims to have been the most attended intermicronational summit in history. The first summit hosted by the "Microfrancophonie" was held in 2016 in Aigues-Mortes, Occitania, and hosted by the Principality of Aigues-Mortes; the second summit took place in 2018 in Vincennes, Paris and was hosted by Angyalistan; the third summit took place in 2022 in Blaye, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, organised by the Principality of Hélianthis.


title: Micronation

text: There are thousands of micronations which exist and operate solely online. Micronationalists convene and engage with one another through several online platforms, especially social media and historically forums (message boards), where micronationalists can share lessons and ideas as well as gain inspiration for establishing their own micronation. MicroWiki, the largest micronational wiki and encyclopaedia, has thousands of articles on various topics related to micronationalism "with many country pages [on MicroWiki] longer than those of real nations [on Wikipedia]," and a number of micronations exist and conduct diplomacy solely on the wiki, utilising it as an online community. As of December 2022, the largest micronational group on Facebook, "Micronations and Alternative Polities", had almost 3,400 members, and the subreddit forum r/micronations on Reddit had another 6,700.


title: Micronation

text: Micronations have no basis in international law. Despite this, several micronations have attempted to justify their claims to sovereignty by citing loopholes in local laws. A commonly attempted tactic used by micronationalists to legitimise their claims is the declarative theory of statehood as defined by the Montevideo Convention, which defines a "state" as: "a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states."


title: Micronation

text: In 2019, a couple seasteading off the coast of Thailand went into hiding after being accused by the Royal Thai Navy of violating Thailand's sovereignty. If found guilty, they could face life in prison or the death penalty.


title: Micronation

text: Some micronations are founded on the basis of historical anomalies. The Principality of Seborga was founded in 1963 by Giorgio Carbone, who claimed to have found documents from the Vatican archives which, according to Carbone, indicated that Seborga had never been a possession of the House of Savoy and was thus not legally included in the Kingdom of Italy when it was formed in 1861, meaning that Seborga had remained sovereign. The Romanov Empire, created by chairman of the Monarchist Party of Russia Anton Bakov, claims to be a re-creation of the Russian Empire that holds Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen as the rightful heir to the imperial throne.


title: Nancy Salzman

text: Nancy L. Salzman (born July 16, 1954) is an American felon and the co-founder of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company and cult based near Albany, New York. A former nurse, Salzman worked with Keith Raniere in the development of the organization beginning in the 1990s.


title: Nancy Salzman

text: Salzman was raised in Cranford, New Jersey and graduated from Cranford High School in her hometown in 1972.


title: Nancy Salzman

text: She has had experience with hypnosis and NLP. Salzman is listed in the Nursys database as having a nursing license in the state of New York from 1983 to its expiration in 2019.


title: Nancy Salzman

text: Before Keith Raniere met Salzman, Raniere operated a pyramid scheme called Consumers' Buyline Inc. that was shut down by the Attorney General of New York in September 1996. In 1997, Raniere joined forces with Salzman in developing Executive Success Programs, which would eventually be rebranded as NXIVM. At NXIVM, Salzman had considerable authority as president of the company and was referred to as "Prefect" by cult members. As the second-in-command, Salzman helped create and promote Raniere's teachings and ideology and recruit individuals into NXIVM. Former members have accused Salzman of being Raniere's abettor and protector and helping Raniere control members and avoid accountability within the organizations.