title: Splash Mountain

text: Br'er Fox then manages to trap Br'er Rabbit in a beehive. The mood turns ominous as two mother characters (an opossum and rabbit) sing the "Burrow's Lament." At the base of the final lift hill, two vultures bear ominous warnings for the riders. The logs begin the final ascent and shortly before the attraction's climactic drop, Br'er Rabbit is seen alongside the hill, about to be eaten by Br'er Fox, but Br'er Rabbit outsmarts Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear by tricking them into throwing him into the briar patch (where he was born and raised). Riders are sent down the final drop into the briar patch, mimicking his fall. The top half of the drop is highly visible from the adjacent areas of the park. An on-ride photo is taken as the log begins to fall, and it can be purchased after disembarking from the ride. From the top of the hill, riders looking toward the splashdown point will notice a full pond of water ahead of them.


title: Splash Mountain

text: The log then 'dives' under the water into an underground runout. The collective weight of the riders generally determines the degree to which they get wet here. An indoor segment follows the drop, after which the logs make a final entrance into a section of the mountain named "Doo-Dah Landing", where a full cast of Audio-Animatronic figures sing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" and the respective fates of Br'er Rabbit (reclined happily at home) and the antagonists (fending off a hungry Br'er Gator) are seen. As the log passes through the Doo-Dah Landing room, a series of glass windows can be seen near the ceiling, behind which is a tunnel used by the Disneyland Railroad track.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Before the return to the loading area, riders are given a preview of their picture that was taken on the final drop via an overhead screen. Professor Barnaby Owl, an overhead Audio-Animatronic, calls the riders' attention to the screen as he remarks on their expressions. After disembarking from the log, riders enter a "dark room," where they preview their on-ride photograph before exiting back out into Critter Country.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Splash Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland is very similar to the Florida version of the ride, with a few exceptions. The ride's layout is a mirror image of Florida's owing to the attraction's location on the opposite side of the river. The secondary characters are altogether different and the show scenes are in different orders. The Tokyo version also lacks a mill or barn-like structure on the second lift (although it is used as the main entrance to the ride queue). Instead, the logs venture into a cave-like opening to begin the second ascent. Another difference from the Florida version is that the Slippin' Falls drop takes place in a dark cave, making the final drop the only outdoor one. The Tokyo version does not have an extra drop after the biggest drop while the Florida version does.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Without a Critter Country section at Walt Disney World, Splash Mountain is instead located in Frontierland, across the way from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Construction of Splash Mountain necessitated the demolition of the existing railroad station and temporarily turning the railroad into a shuttle system between the Main Street, U.S.A. and Mickey's Toontown Fair sections.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Riders board eight-passenger logs, seated two by two (similar to Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld) unlike Disneyland where they seat one by one. Sometimes, a third rider (usually a small child) can be seated in between two guests in a row. Logs are now equipped with lap bars following a January 2011 renovation. The log departs the loading area, where Br'er Frog provides introductory narration. The log ascends a dual-chain lift that deposits riders in a small pond at the bottom of the big drop. After a right turn, logs enter the barn and climb another lift to the space behind the visible mountain, before floating gently through scenery designed to evoke the feeling of a river in the Southern United States, particularly Georgia, where "Song of the South" was based. The homes of the three main characters, aged farm equipment, stagecoach wagons, and ale barrels are incorporated into the landscape, along with a country instrumental version of "How Do You Do?" emanating from hidden speakers along the waterway. After passing Br'er Bear's cave, the logs descend down the Slippin' Falls drop and cross back under the flume. The logs then enter the show building containing the indoor portion of the attraction, where various Audio-Animatronic animals including geese and frogs sing the attraction's first musical number, "How Do You Do?". Several vignettes establish the story of a restless Br'er Rabbit leaving home and being pursued by Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear see Br'er Rabbit telling Mr. Bluebird that he is going to his Laughing Place. Br'er Porcupine warns him of the danger ahead, but Br'er Rabbit continues on. "Everybody's Got a Laughing Place" begins to play after Br'er Bear springs Br'er Fox's rabbit trap. The logs continue onward past a roadrunner who asks to be taken along to the Laughin' Place, while opossums sing the song from overhead. The logs reach a dark tunnel followed by a "dip-drop" into the Laughin' Place. Bees attack Br'er Bear while Br'er Rabbit laughs with joy, unaware that Br'er Fox is behind him, preparing to drop a beehive on top of him. The logs then go over another short drop, and head further into the cavern scenes. There, geyser-riding turtles and laughing, singing bullfrogs, and dancing water fountains guide the log to a dark area in which Br'er Rabbit has been caught by Br'er Fox in a cave of stalactites and stalagmites. Two vultures (this time wearing top hats) taunt riders as they begin their ascent up the final lift. A scene to the left side of the flume shows Br'er Fox menacing Br'er Rabbit, with Bre'r Rabbit pleading not to be thrown into the briar patch.


title: Splash Mountain

text: At the top of this third lift hill, the log descends the drop at a 45-degree angle, reaching a maximum speed of 40 mph, into a tunnel underneath the Frontierland walkway. After another outdoor flume segment, the log coasts back into the mountain, where critters at "Doo Dah Landing" are singing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" in celebration of Br'er Rabbit's return, while Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear attempt to fend off Br'er Gator. At the end, Br'er Rabbit sings with Mr. Bluebird, telling him that he learned his lesson.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Splash Mountain at Disneyland features music in a jazzy "big band" meets orchestral style, fitting the attraction's proximity to New Orleans Square.


title: Splash Mountain

text: In addition, several other songs from "Song of the South" are heard as instrumental tracks, playing on a loop near the attraction and in the queuing area. These include "That's What Uncle Remus Said", "Sooner or Later", "All I Want", "Who Wants to Live Like That", and "Let the Rain Pour Down." The loop only features songs from the film and lasts about 25 minutes.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Animators took over 80 hours to synchronize each figure. To re-wire and test each figure took an additional three months before the attraction could open, as programmers were tasked with reprogramming the figures from their previous America Sings performances with a decent level of realism in accordance with the new settings. Each character can carry out 45 seconds of movement and dialogue before a loop function restarts the sequence from the beginning.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Like in Florida, the main melodies consist of banjos, fiddles and harmonicas. The vocals, however, are completely different from the Magic Kingdom attraction, with the specific verses sung within the show scenes arranged in different orders and the choruses and back-up vocals arranged with different harmonies. Additionally, dialogue and lyrics in Tokyo are Japanese for "How Do You Do?" and "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", but English for "Ev'rybody's Got a Laughin' Place". In both instances, "Burrow's Lament" is heard as an instrumental track with timpani drums (a take that was originally recorded for Disneyland, but never used), with dramatic orchestra and choir.


title: Splash Mountain

text: The ride features the same songs heard at the Disneyland attraction, which are variations of the three songs found in the animated segments from "Song of the South", though the attraction does not present these songs in the same order as the film. Because of the ride's location in Frontierland, the soundtrack features a country feel, with banjos and harmonicas as the primary instruments, and also because of Florida's proximity to Georgia, where "Song of the South" is set. "Burrow's Lament" is the only exception, using an orchestral track with timpani drums originally recorded for the Disneyland version.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Songs from the film heard as instrumental tracks in the queuing area include "That's What Uncle Remus Said", "Let the Rain Pour Down", "Sooner or Later", and the opening theme from the film. Traditional songs like "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and "Goober Peas" are also played in a bluegrass style. The loop lasts about an hour, and includes different orchestrations of the three main songs heard in the ride as well.


title: Splash Mountain

text: Despite being released on CDs attributed to the Magic Kingdom or Walt Disney World in general, as well as often bearing specific track attribution (such as "from Walt Disney World's Splash Mountain"), the country-western style soundtrack actually found at the Florida and Tokyo parks has at least managed to surface on the 2003 Walt Disney World CD entitled "The Official Album/Where Magic Lives". Banjos are heard for over halfway through the 7:57 length, as well as at the end. It is a very different musical arrangement when compared to many other "Walt Disney World", "Disneyland", or combination "Walt Disney World/Disneyland" CDs labeled as "The Official Album". The Disneyland ride does not incorporate this particular country-western-themed soundtrack. Fan-credited versions of the country-western version from the Magic Kingdom have also surfaced as MP3 downloads online. Tokyo Disneyland versions have surfaced also, but have been harder to locate.


title: Capital market

text: A capital market is a financial market in which long-term debt (over a year) or equity-backed securities are bought and sold, in contrast to a money market where short-term debt is bought and sold. Capital markets channel the wealth of savers to those who can put it to long-term productive use, such as companies or governments making long-term investments. Financial regulators like Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Bank of England (BoE) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversee capital markets to protect investors against fraud, among other duties.


title: Capital market

text: Transactions on capital markets are generally managed by entities within the financial sector or the treasury departments of governments and corporations, but some can be accessed directly by the public. As an example, in the United States, any American citizen with an internet connection can create an account with TreasuryDirect and use it to buy bonds in the primary market, though sales to individuals form only a tiny fraction of the total volume of bonds sold. Various private companies provide browser-based platforms that allow individuals to buy shares and sometimes even bonds in the secondary markets. There are many thousands of such systems, most serving only small parts of the overall capital markets. Entities hosting the systems include stock exchanges, investment banks, and government departments. Physically, the systems are hosted all over the world, though they tend to be concentrated in financial centres like London, New York, and Hong Kong.


title: Capital market

text: A capital market can be either a primary market or a secondary market. In a primary market, new stock or bond issues are sold to investors, often via a mechanism known as underwriting. The main entities seeking to raise long-term funds on the primary capital markets are governments (which may be municipal, local or national) and business enterprises (companies). Governments issue only bonds, whereas companies often issue both equity and bonds. The main entities purchasing the bonds or stock include pension funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and less commonly wealthy individuals and investment banks trading on their own behalf. In the secondary market, existing securities are sold and bought among investors or traders, usually on an exchange, over-the-counter, or elsewhere. The existence of secondary markets increases the willingness of investors in primary markets, as they know they are likely to be able to swiftly cash out their investments if the need arises.


title: Capital market

text: A second important division falls between the stock markets (for equity securities, also known as shares, where investors acquire ownership of companies) and the bond markets (where investors become creditors).


title: Capital market

text: The money markets are used for the raising of short-term finance, sometimes for loans that are expected to be paid back as early as overnight. In contrast, the "capital markets" are used for the raising of long-term finance, such as the purchase of shares/equities, or for loans that are not expected to be fully paid back for at least a year.


title: Capital market

text: Funds borrowed from money markets are typically used for general operating expenses, to provide liquid assets for brief periods. For example, a company may have inbound payments from customers that have not yet cleared, but need immediate cash to pay its employees. When a company borrows from the primary capital markets, often the purpose is to invest in additional physical capital goods, which will be used to help increase its income. It can take many months or years before the investment generates sufficient return to pay back its cost, and hence the finance is long term.


title: Capital market

text: Together, money markets and capital markets form the financial markets, as the term is narrowly understood. The capital market is concerned with long-term finance. In the widest sense, it consists of a series of channels through which the savings of the community are made available for industrial and commercial enterprises and public authorities.


title: Capital market

text: Regular bank lending is not usually classed as a capital market transaction, even when loans are extended for a period longer than a year. First, regular bank loans are not securitized (i.e. they do not take the form of a resaleable security like a share or bond that can be traded on the markets). Second, lending from banks is more heavily regulated than capital market lending. Third, bank depositors tend to be more risk-averse than capital market investors. These three differences all act to limit institutional lending as a source of finance. Two additional differences, this time favoring lending by banks, are that banks are more accessible for small and medium-sized companies, and that they have the ability to create money as they lend. In the 20th century, most company finance apart from share issues was raised by bank loans. But since about 1980 there has been an ongoing trend for disintermediation, where large and creditworthy companies have found they effectively have to pay out less interest if they borrow directly from capital markets rather than from banks. The tendency for companies to borrow from capital markets instead of banks has been especially strong in the United States. According to the "Financial Times", capital markets overtook bank lending as the leading source of long-term finance in 2009, which reflects the risk aversion and bank regulation in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.


title: Capital market

text: Compared to in the United States, companies in the European Union have a greater reliance on bank lending for funding. Efforts to enable companies to raise more funding through capital markets are being coordinated through the EU's Capital Markets Union initiative.


title: Capital market

text: When a government wants to raise long-term finance it will often sell bonds in the capital markets. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, many governments would use investment banks to organize the sale of their bonds. The leading bank would underwrite the bonds, and would often head up a syndicate of brokers, some of whom might be based in other investment banks. The syndicate would then sell to various investors. For developing countries, a multilateral development bank would sometimes provide an additional layer of underwriting, resulting in risk being shared between the investment bank(s), the multilateral organization, and the end investors. However, since 1997 it has been increasingly common for governments of the larger nations to bypass investment banks by making their bonds directly available for purchase online. Many governments now sell most of their bonds by computerized auction. Typically, large volumes are put up for sale in one go; a government may only hold a small number of auctions each year. Some governments will also sell a continuous stream of bonds through other channels. The biggest single seller of debt is the U.S. government; there are usually several transactions for such sales every second, which corresponds to the continuous updating of the U.S. real-time debt clock.


title: Capital market

text: When a company wants to raise money for long-term investment, one of its first decisions is whether to do so by issuing bonds or shares. If it chooses shares, it avoids increasing its debt, and in some cases the new shareholders may also provide non-monetary help, such as expertise or useful contacts. On the other hand, a new issue of shares will dilute the ownership rights of the existing shareholders, and if they gain a controlling interest, the new shareholders may even replace senior managers. From an investor's point of view, shares offer the potential for higher returns and capital gains if the company does well. Conversely, bonds are safer if the company does poorly, as they are less prone to severe falls in price, and in the event of bankruptcy, bond owners may be paid something, while shareholders will receive nothing.


title: Capital market

text: When a company raises finance from the primary market, the process is more likely to involve face-to-face meetings than other capital market transactions. Whether they choose to issue bonds or shares, companies will typically enlist the services of an investment bank to mediate between themselves and the market. A team from the investment bank often meets with the company's senior managers to ensure their plans are sound. The bank then acts as an underwriter, and will arrange for a network of brokers to sell the bonds or shares to investors. This second stage is usually done mostly through computerized systems, though brokers will often phone up their favored clients to advise them of the opportunity. Companies can avoid paying fees to investment banks by using a direct public offering, though this is not a common practice as it incurs other legal costs and can take up considerable management time.


title: Capital market

text: Most capital market transactions take place on the secondary market. On the primary market, each security can be sold only once, and the process to create batches of new shares or bonds is often lengthy due to regulatory requirements. On the secondary markets, there is no limit to the number of times a security can be traded, and the process is usually very quick. Transactions on the secondary market do not directly raise finance, but they do make it easier for companies and governments to raise finance on the primary market, as investors know that if they want to get their money back quickly, they will usually be easily able to re-sell their securities. Sometimes, however, secondary capital market transactions can have a negative effect on the primary borrowers: for example, if a large proportion of investors try to sell their bonds, this can push up the yields for future issues from the same entity. An extreme example occurred shortly after Bill Clinton began his first term as President of the United States; Clinton was forced to abandon some of the spending increases he had promised in his election campaign due to pressure from the bond markets . In the 21st century, several governments have tried to lock in as much as possible of their borrowing into long-dated bonds, so they are less vulnerable to pressure from the markets. Following the financial crisis of 2007–08, the introduction of quantitative easing further reduced the ability of private actors to push up the yields of government bonds, at least for countries with a central bank able to engage in substantial open market operations.


title: Capital market

text: A variety of different players are active in the secondary markets. Individual investors account for a small proportion of trading, though their share has slightly increased; in the 20th century it was mostly only a few wealthy individuals who could afford an account with a broker, but accounts are now much cheaper and accessible over the internet. There are now numerous small traders who can buy and sell on the secondary markets using platforms provided by brokers which are accessible via web browsers. When such an individual trades on the capital markets, it will often involve a two-stage transaction. First they place an order with their broker, then the broker executes the trade. If the trade can be done on an exchange, the process will often be fully automated. If a dealer needs to manually intervene, this will often mean a larger fee. Traders in investment banks will often make deals on their bank's behalf, as well as executing trades for their clients. Investment banks will often have a division (or department) called "capital markets": staff in this division try to keep aware of the various opportunities in both the primary and secondary markets, and will advise major clients accordingly. Pension and sovereign wealth funds tend to have the largest holdings, though they tend to buy only the highest grade (safest) types of bonds and shares, and some of them do not trade all that frequently. According to a 2012 "Financial Times" article, hedge funds are increasingly making most of the short-term trades in large sections of the capital market (like the UK and US stock exchanges), which is making it harder for them to maintain their historically high returns, as they are increasingly finding themselves trading with each other rather than with less sophisticated investors.


title: Capital market

text: There are several ways to invest in the secondary market without directly buying shares or bonds. A common method is to invest in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds. It is also possible to buy and sell derivatives that are based on the secondary market; one of the most common type of these is contracts for difference – these can provide rapid profits, but can also cause buyers to lose more money than they originally invested.


title: Capital market

text: All figures given are in billions of US$ and are sourced to the IMF. There is no universally recognized standard for measuring all of these figures, so other estimates may vary. A GDP column is included as a comparison.


title: Capital market

text: A great deal of work goes into analysing capital markets and predicting their future movements. This includes academic study; work from within the financial industry for the purposes of making money and reducing risk; and work by governments and multilateral institutions for the purposes of regulation and understanding the impact of capital markets on the wider economy. Methods range from the gut instincts of experienced traders, to various forms of stochastic calculus and algorithms such as Stratonovich-Kalman-Bucy filtering algorithm.


title: Capital market

text: Capital controls are measures imposed by a state's government aimed at managing capital account transactions – in other words, capital market transactions where one of the counter-parties involved is in a foreign country. Whereas domestic regulatory authorities try to ensure that capital market participants trade fairly with each other, and sometimes to ensure institutions like banks do not take excessive risks, capital controls aim to ensure that the macroeconomic effects of the capital markets do not have a negative impact. Most advanced nations like to use capital controls sparingly if at all, as in theory allowing markets freedom is a win-win situation for all involved: investors are free to seek maximum returns, and countries can benefit from investments that will develop their industry and infrastructure. However, sometimes capital market transactions can have a net negative effect: for example, in a financial crisis, there can be a mass withdrawal of capital, leaving a nation without sufficient foreign-exchange reserves to pay for needed imports. On the other hand, if too much capital is flowing into a country, it can increase inflation and the value of the nation's currency, making its exports uncompetitive. Countries like India employ capital controls to ensure that their citizens' money is invested at home rather than abroad.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The Kyrgyz people (also spelled Kyrghyz, Kirgiz, and Kirghiz) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, primarily Kyrgyzstan.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: There are several theories on the origin of ethnonym "Kyrgyz". It is often said to be derived from the Turkic word "kyrk" ("forty"), with -"iz" being an old plural suffix, so "Kyrgyz" literally means "a collection of forty tribes". It also means "imperishable", "inextinguishable", "immortal", "unconquerable" or "unbeatable", as well as its association with the epic hero Manas, who – according to a founding myth – unified the 40 tribes against the Khitans. A rival myth, recorded in 1370 in the "History of Yuan", concerns 40 women born on a steppe motherland.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The earliest records of the ethnonym appear to have been the Chinese transcriptions "Gekun" (, LH *"kek-kuən" < Old Chinese: *"krêk-kûn") and "Jiankun" (, LH *"ken-kuən" < OC: *"kên-kûn"). Those suggest that the original ethnonym was *"kirkur ~ kirgur" and/or *"kirkün", and another transcription "Jiegu" (, EMC: *"kέt-kwət") suggests *"kirkut / kirgut". Yury Zuev proposed that the ethnonym possibly means 'field people, field Huns' (cf. Tiele tribal name 渾 "Hún" < MC *"ɣuən"). Peter Golden reconstructs *"Qïrğïz" < *"Qïrqïz"< *"Qïrqïŕ" and suggests a derivation from Old Turkic "qır" 'gray' (horse color) plus suffix "-q(X)r/ğ(X)r" ~ "k(X)z/g(X)z". Besides, Chinese scholars later used a number of different transcriptions for the Kyrgyz people: these include "Gegu" (紇骨), "Jiegu" (結骨), "Hegu" (紇骨), "Hegusi" (紇扢斯), "Hejiasi" (紇戛斯), "Hugu" (護骨), "Qigu" (契骨), or "Juwu" (居勿), and then, during the reign of Tang Emperor Wuzong, "Xiajiasi" (黠戛斯), said to mean "red face". Edwin G. Pulleyblank surmises that "red face" was possibly a folk etymology provided by an interpreter who explained the ethnonym based on Turkic "qïzïl" ~ "qizqil", meaning 'red'. By the time of the Mongol Empire, the ethnonym's original meaning had apparently been forgotten – as was shown by variations in readings of it across different reductions of the "History of Yuan". This may have led to the adoption of "Kyrgyz" and its mythical explanation.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: During the 18th and 19th centuries, European writers used the early Romanized form "Kirghiz" – from the contemporary Russian – to refer not only to the modern Kyrgyz, but also to their more numerous northern relatives, the Kazakhs. When distinction had to be made, more specific terms were used:


title: Kyrgyz people

text: the Kyrgyz proper were known as the "Kara-Kirghiz" ("Black Kirghiz", from the colour of their tents),


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The Kyrgyz are a Turkic ethnic group. Recent linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest Turkic peoples descended from agricultural communities in Northeast China who moved westwards into Mongolia in the late 3rd millennium BC, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle. By the early 1st millennium BC, these peoples had become equestrian nomads. In subsequent centuries, the steppe populations of Central Asia appear to have been progressively Turkified by a East Asian dominant minority moving out of Mongolia.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The early Kyrgyz people, known as Yenisei Kyrgyz, have their origins in the western parts of modern-day Mongolia and first appear in written records in the Chinese annals of the Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" (compiled 109 BC to 91 BC), as "Gekun" (, ) or "Jiankun" (). The Middle Age Chinese composition "Tanghuiyao" of the 8–10th century transcribed the name "Kyrgyz" as "Jiegu" (Kirgut), and their tamga was depicted as identical to the tamga of present-day Kyrgyz tribes Azyk, Bugu, Cherik, Sary Bagysh and few others.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The Yenisei Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. In Late Antiquity the Yenisei Kyrgyz were a part of the Tiele people. Later, in the Early Middle Ages, the Yenisei Kyrgyz were a part of the confederations of the Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganates.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: In 840, a revolt led by the Yenisei Kyrgyz brought down the Uyghur Khaganate, and brought the Yenisei Kyrgyz to a dominating position in the former Second Turkic Khaganate. With the rise to power, the center of the Kyrgyz Khaganate moved to Jeti-su, and brought about a spread south of the Kyrgyz people, to reach Tian Shan mountains and Xinjiang, bringing them into contact with the existing peoples of western China, especially Tibet.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The Kirghiz khagans of the Yenisei Kirghiz Khaganate claimed descent from the Han Chinese general Li Ling, which was mentioned in the diplomatic correspondence between the Kirghiz khagan and the Tang Dynasty emperor, since the Tang imperial Li family claimed descent from Li Ling's grandfather, Li Guang. The Kirghiz qaghan assisted the Tang dynasty in destroying the Uyghur Khaganate and rescuing the Princess Taihe from the Uyghurs. They also killed a Uyghur khagan in the process.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: Then Kyrgyz quickly moved as far as the Tian Shan range and maintained their dominance over this territory for about 200 years. In the 12th century, however, Kyrgyz domination had shrunk to the Altai and Sayan Mountains as a result of Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Kyrgyz migrated south. In 1207, after the establishment of "Yekhe Mongol Ulus" (Mongol empire), Genghis Khan's oldest son Jochi occupied Kyrgyzstan without resistance. The state remained a Mongol vassal until the late 14th century. Various Turkic peoples ruled them until 1685, when they came under the control of the Oirats (Dzungars).


title: Kyrgyz people

text: By the 16th century, the carriers of the ethnonym "Kirgiz" lived in South Siberia, Xinjiang, Tian Shan, Pamir-Alay, Middle Asia, Urals (among Bashkirs), in Kazakhstan. In the Tian Shan and Xinjiang area, the term "Kyrgyz" retained its unifying political designation, and became a general ethnonym for the Yenisei Kirgizes and aboriginal Turkic tribes that presently constitute the Kyrgyz population. Though it is obviously impossible to directly identify the Yenisei and Tien Shan Kyrgyz, a trace of their ethnogenetical connections is apparent in archaeology, history, language and ethnography. A majority of modern researchers came to the conclusion that the ancestors of Kyrgyz tribes had their origin in the most ancient tribal unions of Sakas/Scythians, Wusun/Issedones, Dingling, Mongols, and Huns.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The oldest notes about a definite mention of the Kyrgyz ethnonym originate from the 6th century. There is a certain probability that there was relations between Kyrgyz and Gegunese already in the 2nd century BC and between Kyrgyz and Khakases since the 6th century AD, but there is a missing unique mention. The Kyrgyz as an ethnic group are mentioned quite unambiguously during the time of Genghis Khan's rule (1162–1227), when their name replaces the former name Khakas.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The genetic makeup of the Kyrgyz is consistent with their origin as a mix of tribes. For instance, 63% of modern Kyrgyz men of Jumgal District are Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA). Low diversity of Kyrgyz R1a1 indicates a founder effect within the historical period. Other groups of Kyrgyz especially Southwest Kyrgyz show considerably lower haplogroup R frequencies and almost lack haplogroup N (except for the Kyrgyz from Pamir).


title: Kyrgyz people

text: Depending on the geographical location of samples, West Eurasian mtDNA haplogroup lineages make up 27% to 42.6% in the Kyrgyz, with haplogroup mtDNA H being the most predominant West Eurasian mtDNA haplogroup at about 14.2% (range 8.3% Talas to 21.3% Sary-Tash) among the Kyrgyz. However, the majority of Kyrgyz belong to East Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups, with mtDNA haplogroup D (approx. 20.2%, range 14.6% Talas to 25.5% Sary-Tash) and D4 in particular (approx. 18.5%) being the most frequent Eastern Eurasian lineage among them.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: According to a genetic study based on geographic location of the 26 Central Asian populations shows the admixture proportions of East Eurasian ancestry is predominant in most Kyrgyz living in Kyrgyzstan. East Eurasian ancestry makes up roughly two-thirds with exceptions of Kyrgyz living in Tajikistan and the western areas of Kyrgyzstan where it forms only half.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: Kyrgyz are predominantly Muslims of the Hanafi Sunni school. Islam was first introduced by Arab traders who travelled along the Silk Road in the seventh and eighth centuries. In the 8th century, orthodox Islam reached the Fergana valley with the Uzbeks. However, in the tenth-century Persian text "Hudud al-'alam", the Kyrgyz was still described as a people who "venerate the Fire and burn the dead".


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The Kyrgyz began to convert to Islam in the mid-seventeenth century. Sufi missionaries played an important role in the conversion. By the 19th century, the Kyrgyz were considered devout Muslims and some performed the Hajj.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: Atheism has some following in the northern regions under Russian communist influence. As of today, few cultural rituals of Shamanism are still practiced alongside Islam, particularly in Central Kyrgyzstan. During a July 2007 interview, Bermet Akayeva, the daughter of Askar Akayev, the former President of Kyrgyzstan, stated that Islam is increasingly taking root, even in the northern portion which came under communist influence. She emphasized that many mosques have been built and that the Kyrgyz are "increasingly devoting themselves to Islam".


title: Kyrgyz people

text: Many ancient indigenous beliefs and practices, including shamanism and totemism, coexisted syncretically with Islam. Shamans, most of whom are women, still play a prominent role at funerals, memorials, and other ceremonies and rituals. This split between the northern and southern Kyrgyz in their religious adherence to Muslim practices can still be seen today. Likewise, the Sufi order of Islam has been one of the most active Muslim groups in Kyrgyzstan for over a century.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The Kyrgyz population of Afghanistan was 1,130 in 2003, all from eastern Wakhan District in the Badakhshan Province of northeastern Afghanistan. They still lead a nomadic lifestyle and are led by a "khan" or "tekin".


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The suppression of the 1916 rebellion against Russian rule in Central Asia caused many Kyrgyz later to migrate to China and Afghanistan. Most of the Kyrgyz refugees in Afghanistan settled in the Wakhan region. Until 1978, the northeastern portion of Wakhan was home to about 3–5 thousand ethnic Kyrgyz. In 1978, most Kyrgyz inhabitants fled to Pakistan in the aftermath of the Saur Revolution. They requested 5,000 visas from the United States consulate in Peshawar for resettlement in Alaska, a state of the United States which they thought might have a similar climate and temperature with the Wakhan Corridor. Their request was denied. In the meantime, the heat and the unsanitary conditions of the refugee camp were killing off the Kyrgyz refugees at an alarming rate. Turkey, which was under the military coup rule of General Kenan Evren, stepped in, and resettled the entire group in the Lake Van region of Turkey in 1982. The village of Ulupamir (or “Great Pamir” in Kyrgyz) in Erciş in Van Province was given to these, where more than 5,000 of them still reside today. The documentary film "37 Uses for a Dead Sheep – the Story of the Pamir Kirghiz" was based on the life of these Kyrgyz in their new home. Some Kyrgyz returned to Wakhan in October 1979, following the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They are found around the Little Pamir.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The Kyrgyz form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. There are more than 145,000 Kyrgyz in China. They are known in Mandarin Chinese as "Kē'ěrkèzī zú" ().


title: Kyrgyz people

text: In the 19th century, Russian settlers on traditional Kirghiz land drove a lot of the Kirghiz over the border to China, causing their population to increase in China. Compared to Russian controlled areas, more benefits were given to the Muslim Kirghiz on the Chinese controlled areas. Russian settlers fought against the Muslim nomadic Kirghiz, which led the Russians to believe that the Kirghiz would be a liability in any conflict against China. The Muslim Kirghiz were sure that in an upcoming war, that China would defeat Russia.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: The Kirghiz of Xinjiang revolted in the 1932 Kirghiz rebellion, and also participated in the Battle of Kashgar (1933) and again in 1934.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: They are found mainly in the Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture in the southwestern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with a smaller remainder found in the neighboring Wushi (Uqturpan), Aksu, Shache (Yarkand), Yingisar, Taxkorgan and Pishan (Guma), and in Tekes, Zhaosu (Monggolkure), Emin (Dorbiljin), Bole (Bortala), Jinghev (Jing) and Gongliu County in northern Xinjiang. In Akto County, the Akto Turkmen, a former Kyrgyz tribe, now speaks Uyghur.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: A peculiar group, also included under the "Kyrgyz nationality" by the PRC official classification, are the so-called "Fuyu Kyrgyz". It is a group of several hundred Yenisei Kirghiz (Khakas people) people whose forefathers were relocated from the Yenisei river region to Dzungaria by the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th century, and upon defeat of the Dzungars by the Qing dynasty, they were relocated from Dzungaria to Manchuria in the 18th century, and who now live in Wujiazi Village in Fuyu County, Heilongjiang Province. Their language (the Fuyü Gïrgïs dialect) is related to the Khakas language.


title: Kyrgyz people

text: Kyrgyz are the only Turkic people native to Pakistan. The Kyrgyz in Pakistan live mostly in the north, primarily Chitral, where Kyrgyz is the only Turkic language spoken in Pakistan. There are only a few thousand left, and many have assimilated with Pashtun or the Kho. They used to dominate the region of Gilgit-Baltistan. There are also Afghan refugees of Kyrgyz origin in Pakistan. Some also come from Kyrgyzstan from the Soviet-Afghan War where some defected and settled in Pakistan. There are also Kyrgyz nationals who work in Pakistan.


title: Diploma

text: A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or official document of diplomacy.


title: Diploma

text: The diploma (as a document certifying a qualification) may also be called a testamur, Latin for "we testify" or "certify" (testari), so called from the word with which the certificate begins; this is commonly used in Australia to refer to the document certifying the award of a degree. Alternatively, this document can simply be referred to as a degree certificate or graduation certificate, or as a parchment. The certificate that a Nobel laureate receives is also called a diploma.


title: Diploma

text: The term diploma is also used in some historical contexts, to refer to documents signed by a King affirming a grant or tenure of specified land and its conditions (see Anglo-Saxon Charters and Diplomatics).


title: Diploma

text: In Australia, there are three varieties of Diploma currently recognized by the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF):


title: Diploma

text: The "Vocational Graduate Diploma" was a short lived AQF qualification equivalent to the "Graduate Diploma", intended to be delivered exclusively in the VET sector. On January 1, 2015, all such qualifications being offered lost the word "Vocational" from their title.


title: Diploma

text: In Ontario, Canada, diplomas are two and three year academic post-secondary programmes taught by colleges and institutes of applied studies, arts, and technology. Two year programmes are referred to as college diplomas, while three year programmes are called Ontario College Advanced Diplomas. Baccalaureate degrees in Ontario are commonly a year longer than an Advanced Diploma and are offered by both colleges and universities.


title: Diploma

text: The Canadian school system uses credits to calculate the value of a course load towards a diploma. To graduate and earn a diploma, the school decides how many credits each course contributes towards the diploma. For example, one college course delivered over 14 weeks of a semester counts for 3 credits. towards the 60 credits for a complete 2 year program.


title: Diploma

text: In Germany, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and other countries that adopted the German academic education system, diploma (in German "Diplom") is the standard academic degree, needing at least 3.5 years to complete it, being comparable with a bachelor's and master's degree in one.


title: Diploma

text: In Greece, diplomas can be awarded by educational institutes as a proof of a certain educational level. The diploma in engineering is a degree provided by Greek technical universities and universities after the successful completion of a five-year integrated study programme and it is equivalent to the Master of Engineering degree, which is awarded by the European universities.


title: Diploma

text: Also in Greece there are the Vocational Training Diploma (Post-Secondary Education EQF 5 level) provided by the National Qualifications and Vocational Guidance Organization (E.O.P.P.E.P.) to the Vocational Training Institutes IEK, following certification exams carried out by the E.O.P.P.E.P.


title: Diploma

text: In Hong Kong, Diploma or Advanced Diploma/Certificate (Qualifications Frameworks Level 4), Professional Diploma/Certificate (Qualifications Frameworks Level 4), Higher Diploma, and associate degree are below the level of the bachelor's degree.


title: Diploma

text: Certificate (not Post-Graduate Certificate) Qualifications Frameworks Level 3 or below; are below the level of Diploma, Advanced or Professional Diploma/Certificate (Qualifications Frameworks Level 4), Higher Diploma or associate degree.


title: Diploma

text: Postgraduate Certificates and Postgraduate Diplomas are usually granted after the bachelor's degree. It's more vocational oriented than a master's degree.


title: Diploma

text: In India, a diploma is a specific academic award usually earned in professional/vocational courses, e.g., Diploma in Engineering, Diploma in Nursing, Diploma in Pharmacy etc. Engineering diplomas are concentrated for the area of study, e.g., diploma in Electronics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering etc.


title: Diploma

text: There are two types of diplomas/certificates that are issued in formal and non-formal education sectors: formal diplomas are issued by government-approved/recognized institutions, colleges and universities and non-formal diplomas are issued by NGOs, companies and societies etc. outside the formal education sector.


title: Diploma

text: In the Republic of Ireland, a National Diploma was awarded before 2004. It was at the same level as the ordinary bachelor's degree and below the honours bachelor's degree, whilst the Higher Diploma is taken after the bachelor's degree. There is BTEC Extended Diploma also after which one gets progression to a Degree (University).


title: Diploma

text: In Ireland a Graduate Diploma is a Level 9 degree, the equivalent of a Master's degree, requiring the student to complete 60 credits instead of 90 and usually centring on the completion of a project rather than a written thesis.


title: Diploma

text: In Mexico and other Latin American countries, a diploma may be awarded for short courses of vocational training. The university-issued diplomas finalizing higher education are most often called "título" (title) or "certificado" (certificate). A "Diplomado" can also be a short, specialized executive education program for experienced professionals.


title: Diploma

text: In Pakistan, a diploma is a specific academic award usually earned in professional/vocational courses e.g. Diploma in Engineering, Diploma in Nursing, Diploma in Pharmacy etc. Engineering diploma is called Diploma of Associate Engineering (DAE) and is concentrated for the area of study, e.g., Electronics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering etc. DAE holders are often called associate engineers in Pakistan.


title: Diploma

text: Postgraduate Diploma or PGD are ranked higher than the bachelor's degree as they are completed after graduation. These are normally a year's worth of coursework after a university degree.


title: Diploma

text: In Singapore, most diplomas are awarded after a three-year course, offered by the five polytechnics (Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Nanyang Polytechnic and Republic Polytechnic) or the two arts institutions (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and LASALLE College of the Arts).


title: Diploma

text: Other private schools like Kaplan, SIM, PSB Academy and MDIS, also offer diploma programmes between a period of six months and two years.


title: Diploma

text: In the Kingdom of Spain, university diplomas are issued in the name of the King. As such, they are Public Official documents, strictly regulated and protected by the law. They are internationally recognized by the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961.


title: Diploma

text: In the UK, "diploma" can refer to several different types of qualification but is never equivalent to a degree. A degree is higher than a diploma. One can never say that he finished a degree when he is only given a special diploma. A Diploma can be a qualification worth 37 or more credits on the Regulated Qualifications Framework, e.g. Entry Level Diploma, Level 3 Diploma. The Diploma of Higher Education is a higher education award equivalent to the second-year of a bachelor's degree. The Higher National Diploma is a vocational qualification at the same level. A Graduate Diploma is a one-year qualification at bachelor's degree level, normally taken by those who have already obtained a degree. A Postgraduate Diploma is an award at the level of a master's degree, but normally taking less time to complete.


title: Diploma

text: Some universities may offer other qualifications, such as the University of Cambridge's and the University of Oxford's Undergraduate Diploma (a 1-year, part-time course at the same level as a Diploma of Higher Education) and Undergraduate Advanced Diploma.


title: Diploma

text: The document certifying the award of a degree is normally called a degree certificate in the UK, and details are printed in English, not in Latin.


title: Diploma

text: The Undergraduate Advanced Diploma (UGAdvDip or UGAD) is a FHEQ Level 6 award, the academic level is the equivalent to the final year of a bachelor's degree and they are generally accepted as equivalent to a Bachelor's degree or a Graduate Diploma. An advanced diploma is an undergraduate degree that prepares students to enter into a specific career or further study in an advanced degree, like a Master of Arts. After graduated from an Undergraduate Advanced Diploma, it enables student to apply for postgraduate studies such as Master's degree or Postgraduate Diploma. Even though they are considered equivalent to a Bachelor's degree they usually have a duration of two years and they can be offered both on a full time and a part time basis. Students are eligible to apply for College Membership and they are considered alumni of the universities they attended.


title: Diploma

text: In the United States, the word "diploma" usually refers to the actual document, especially in the context of academic degrees earned at the college or university level. That is, Americans normally draw a distinction between a diploma as documentary evidence of the award of an academic degree, and the underlying degree itself (which is not called a diploma).


title: Diploma

text: The reason this distinction matters is that many American universities do not print diplomas until several weeks or months "after" the dates on which graduates were formally awarded their degrees on their academic transcripts. In other words, when a diploma says on its face that so-and-so degree was "given at [city] on [date]", the diploma itself was not physically handed to the holder on that date. (For ceremonial purposes, the documents handed out at graduation are simply certificates of participation in the graduation ceremony itself.) Thus, asking alumni when they received their diplomas is usually pointless; what really matters for most purposes (e.g., occupational licensing) is when they received their degrees. This important distinction can lead to some confusion when persons who obtained degrees at American universities are presenting their academic credentials in other countries.


title: Diploma

text: There are two major exceptions where Americans have merged the document with the qualification it represents (as seen in other countries). The first is the high school diploma. Second, the term "diploma" can refer to a specific academic or training award. For example, the Diploma in Nursing was offered by hospital-based nursing schools.


title: Diploma

text: Historically, American universities emulated their European counterparts by issuing diplomas written in the Latin language. That is now the exception today: "While most colleges and universities now issue English diplomas, some prominent holdouts — including Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania — still use Latin." At Harvard University, undergraduate degrees began to be written in English in 1961, leading to a street protest by students known as the "Diploma Riots". However, as of 2021, some Harvard graduate schools continue to issue degrees in Latin, including Harvard Law School and the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.


title: Diploma

text: The term "diplomate" (always ending with an "e") is used in the United States to refer to a person holding a specialized certification in a professional field, although the documentary evidence of this is traditionally called a "certificate" and not a "diploma". For example, board-certified physicians in the United States traditionally indicate their board-certified status on their letterhead and business cards with the title "Diplomate", a comma, and then the name of their certifying board.


title: Diploma

text: The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma is a pre-university qualification normally taken by students in the final two years of high school.


title: Rod Laver

text: Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the world number 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years before and three years after the start of the Open Era in 1968. He was also ranked the world number 1 amateur in 1961 by Lance Tingay and 1962 by Tingay and Ned Potter.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver's 200 singles titles are the most in tennis history. This included his all-time men's record of 10 or more titles per year for seven consecutive years (1964–1970). He excelled on all of the court surfaces of his time: grass, clay, hard, carpet, and wood.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver won 11 Grand Slam singles titles, though he was banned from playing those tournaments for the five years prior to the Open Era. Laver is the only player, male or female, to win a Grand Slam (winning all four major titles in the same calendar year) twice in singles, in 1962 and 1969; the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era. He is the first male player out of two to be winner and runner up at all four grand slams, followed by Roger Federer.


title: Rod Laver

text: He is the second of four male players to win each major title twice (preceded by Roy Emerson and followed by Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal). Laver also won eight Pro Slam titles, including the "pro Grand Slam" in 1967, and he contributed to five Davis Cup titles for Australia during an age when the Davis Cup was deemed as significant as the four majors.


title: Rod Laver

text: Rodney George Laver was born in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, on 9 August 1938. He was the third of four children of Roy Laver, a cattleman and butcher, and his wife Melba Roffey. Relatives include the cricketers Frank Laver and Jack Laver.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1966, Laver, aged 27, married Mary Benson in San Rafael, California. Born Mary Shelby Peterson in Illinois, she was a divorcee with three children. After their wedding ceremony, a group of well-known tennis players in attendance, including Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Mal Anderson and Barry MacKay, stood outside the church with raised tennis rackets that formed an archway for the newlyweds to walk under. Laver and Mary had a son and the family lived at various locations in California including Rancho Mirage, Corona del Mar, a ranch near Santa Barbara and Carlsbad.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver was a teenager when he left school to pursue a tennis career that lasted 24 years. He was coached in Queensland by Charlie Hollis and later by the Australian Davis Cup team captain Harry Hopman, who gave Laver the nickname "Rocket".


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver was both Australian and US Junior champion in 1957. He had his breakthrough on the world stage in 1959, when he reached all three finals at Wimbledon, winning the mixed doubles title with Darlene Hard. As an unseeded player, he lost the singles final to Peruvian Alex Olmedo after surviving an 87-game semifinal against American Barry MacKay. His first major singles title was the Australian Championships in 1960, where he defeated fellow Australian Neale Fraser in a five-set final after coming back from two sets down and saving a Fraser championship point in the fourth set. Laver captured his first Wimbledon singles crown in 1961 beating Chuck McKinley in straight sets in the final, which lasted just 53 minutes (one of the shortest men's singles Wimbledon finals on record). Laver was ranked the world No. 1 amateur in 1961 by Lance Tingay.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1962, Laver became the first male player since Don Budge in 1938 to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in the same year. He won an additional 18 titles, for a season total of 22. Among those titles were the Italian Championships and the German Championships, giving Laver the "clay court triple" of Paris, Rome, and Hamburg that had been achieved previously only by Lew Hoad in 1956. At the Australian championships, Laver beat Roy Emerson in the final. The biggest hurdle to Laver's winning the Grand Slam was the French Championships on slow clay, where Laver won three consecutive five-setters beginning with the quarterfinals. In his quarterfinal with Martin Mulligan, Laver saved a matchpoint in the fourth set with a backhand volley after coming to the net behind a second serve. In the final, Laver lost the first two sets and was down 0–3 in the fourth set before coming back to defeat Emerson. At Wimbledon, his progress was much easier. Laver lost only one set the whole tournament, to Manuel Santana in a quarterfinal, who held a set point for a two set lead. In the final, Laver beat Mulligan in 52 minutes (a minute shorter than the previous year's final). At the US Championships, Laver lost only two sets during the tournament and defeated Emerson again in the final. Laver was ranked world number one amateur for 1962 by Tingay, by Ned Potter and by an Ulrich Kaiser panel of 13 experts.


title: Rod Laver

text: In February 1963, he appeared on the panel game show To Tell the Truth, where all four panelists identified him based on his knowledge of the history of tennis.


title: Rod Laver

text: In December 1962 Laver turned professional after winning the Davis Cup with the Australian team. After an initial period of adjustment he quickly established himself among the leading professional players such as Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad and Andrés Gimeno, and also Pancho Gonzales when Gonzales returned to a full-time schedule in 1964. During the next seven years, Laver won the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships five times, including four in a row beginning in 1966.


title: Rod Laver

text: In the beginning of 1963, Laver was beaten consistently by both Rosewall and Hoad on an Australasian tour. Hoad won the first eight matches against Laver, and Rosewall won 11 out of 13. However, Laver won the best-of-five set matches against Rosewall at Kooyong Stadium and at Adelaide's Memorial Stadium. By the end of the year, with six tournament titles, Laver had become the No. 2 professional player behind Rosewall. In the first phase of the World Series tour, Laver finished second, with a 25–16 record. The top two players Rosewall and Laver then played a series of matches against each other to determine the champion. Rosewall won 14–4.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1964, Laver and Rosewall both won seven important titles (in minor tournaments Laver won four and Rosewall won three), but Laver won 17 of 24 matches against Rosewall and captured the two most prestigious titles, the US Pro Championships over Gonzales and the Wembley Championships over Rosewall. In Tennis Week, Raymond Lee described the Wembley match, where Laver came from 5–3 down in the fifth set to win 8–6, as possibly their best ever and one that changed tennis history. Lee regards this win as the one that began and established Laver's long reign as world number one. The other prestige title, the French pro, was won by Rosewall. Rosewall finished top of the official points table in 1964 and after winning at Wembley, Laver said "I’ve still plenty of ambitions left and would like to be the world's No. 1. Despite this win, I am not there yet – Ken is."


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1965, Laver was clearly the No. 1 professional player, winning 17 titles and 13 of 18 matches against Rosewall. In ten finals, Laver won eight against the still dangerous Gonzales. Laver won the Wembley Pro, beating Gimeno in the final.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1966, Laver won 16 events, including the US Pro Championships (beating Rosewall in a five-set final), the Wembley Pro Championship (beating Rosewall easily in the final), and eight other important tournaments.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1967, Laver won 19 titles, including the Wimbledon Pro (beating Rosewall in straight sets in the final), the US Pro Championships (beating Gimeno in the final), the Wembley Pro Championships (beating Rosewall in the final), and the French Pro Championship (beating Gimeno in the final), which gave him a clean sweep of the four most important professional titles, a professional Grand Slam. The Wimbledon Pro tournament in 1967 was the only professional event ever staged on Wimbledon's Centre Court before the Open Era began.


title: Rod Laver

text: With the dawn of the Open Era in 1968, professional players were once again allowed to compete in Grand Slam events. Laver became Wimbledon's first Open Era champion in 1968, beating the best amateur, American Arthur Ashe, in a semifinal and fellow-Australian Tony Roche in the final, both in straight sets. Laver was also the runner-up to Ken Rosewall in the first French Open. In this first "open" year, there were only eight open events besides Wimbledon and the French Open, where professionals, registered players, and amateurs could compete against each other. The professionals mainly played their own circuit, with two groups – National Tennis League (NTL) and World Championships Tennis (WCT) – operating. Laver was ranked No. 1 universally, winning the US Professional Championships on grass and the French Pro Championship on clay (both over John Newcombe). Laver also won the last big open event of the year, the Pacific Southwest in Los Angeles on hard courts. Ashe regarded Laver's 4–6, 6–0, 6–0 final win over Ken Rosewall as one of his finest performances. Laver's post-match comment was, "This is the kind of match you always dream about. The kind you play at night in your sleep." Laver ranked No. 1 for 1968 by the panel of journalists for the 'Martini and Rossi' Award, by an Ulrich Kaiser panel of 18 experts, by Seagrams (a panel of 15 journalists), by "World Tennis", by Lance Tingay, by Rino Tommasi, by Bud Collins and by "The Times".


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1969, Laver won all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same calendar year for the second time, sealing the achievement with a four-set win over Roche in the US Open final. He won 18 of the 32 singles tournaments he entered (still the Open Era titles record) and compiled a 106–16 win–loss record. In beating Newcombe in four sets in the Wimbledon final, he captured the title at the All England Club for the fourth consecutive time that he had entered the tournament (and reached the final for the sixth consecutive time as he had been runner-up in 1959 and 1960). He set a record of 31 consecutive match victories at Wimbledon between 1961 and 1970, which lasted until 1980 when it was eclipsed by Björn Borg. Unlike his first Grand Slam year in 1962, Laver in 1969 played in events open to all the best professional and amateur players of the world. In the year's Grand Slam tournaments, Laver had five five-set-matches, twice coming back from two sets down in early rounds. In the four finals, however, he lost a total of only two sets. His hardest match was a marathon 90-game semifinal against Roche at the Australian Open under tropical hot conditions. Other opponents at the Australian Open included Roy Emerson, Fred Stolle, and Andrés Gimeno. At the French Open, Laver beat Gimeno, Tom Okker, and Rosewall. At Wimbledon, Laver overcame strong challenges from Stan Smith, Cliff Drysdale, Ashe, and Newcombe. At the US Open on slippery grass courts, he defeated Dennis Ralston, Emerson, Ashe, and Roche. Laver proved his versatility by winning the Grand Slam tournaments on grass and clay, plus the two most important hard court titles (South African Open at Ellis Park, Johannesburg and the US Professional Championships at Boston) and the leading indoor tournaments (Philadelphia US Pro Indoor and Wembley British Indoor). Laver ranked No. 1 for 1969 by the panel of 13 international journalists for the 'Martini and Rossi' Award, by Tingay, by Collins, by Tommasi, by Frank Rostron and by "World Tennis".


title: Rod Laver

text: In the early 1970s, Laver lost his grip on the major tournaments. He played only five Grand Slam tournaments from 1970 through 1972. This was partly because of his contracts with NTL and WCT. But on the WCT tours, he remained the leading player and by far the leading prize money winner.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1970, Laver won 15 titles and US$201,453 in prize money, including the rich "Tennis Champions Classic" and five other big events (Sydney Dunlop Open, Philadelphia, Wembley, Los Angeles, South African Open). Those were the equivalent of the modern day ATP Masters Series and most had 8 or more of the world's top ranked players participating. With only two majors played by all the best players (Wimbledon and the US Open), there was no clear-cut World No. 1 in 1970. Wimbledon champion Newcombe, US champion Rosewall, and Laver (who won the most titles and had a 3–0 win–loss record against Newcombe and a 5–0 record against Rosewall) were ranked the highest by different journalists and expert panels. The panel of 10 international journalists who voted for the 'Martini and Rossi' Award, ranked Rosewall No. 1 with 97 points over Laver (89 pts) and Newcombe (81 pts). The panel of 12 journalists which made the WCT draw for 1971 ranked Laver 1st, Rosewall 2nd and Newcombe 3rd. Rex Bellamy ranked Laver No. 1, with Rosewall No. 2. Judith Elian of "L'Equipe" Magazine (Paris) and Rino Tommasi placed Rosewall No. 1, while Robert Geist co-ranked Rosewall, Laver and Newcombe No. 1. Newcombe later wrote in his autobiography "Newk-Life On and Off the Court" (2002) that the top honour for 1970 belonged to Laver. Lance Tingay, John McCauley and Bud Collins. ranked Newcombe ahead of Rosewall and Laver.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1971 Laver won seven titles, including the Italian Open in Rome on clay over Jan Kodeš, the reigning French Open champion. Laver successfully defended his title at the "Tennis Champions Classic", winning 13 consecutive winner-take-all matches against top opponents and US$160,000. For the year, Laver won a then-record US$292,717 in tournament prize money and became the first tennis player to surpass US$1 million in career prize money. In 1971 and 1972, Laver finished as the points leader of the WCT tournament series but lost the playoff finals at Dallas to Rosewall. The last match is rated as one of the best of all time and drew a TV audience of over 20 million.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1972, Laver cut back his tournament schedule, partly because of back and knee injuries and his tennis camp businesses, but he still won five titles that year. In 1973, Laver won seven titles and successfully participated in the semifinals and final of the Davis Cup, where he won all six of his rubbers for Australia. In 1974 Laver won six titles from 13 tournaments and ended the year as World No. 4 based on the ATP point system. At 36, he was the oldest player during the Open Era to have been included in the year-ending top five.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1975, Laver set a record for WCT tournaments by winning four titles and 23 consecutive matches but in 1976, he semi-retired from the main tour, playing only a few selected events. He also signed with World Team Tennis, where he became "Rookie of the Year" at the age of 38 but won five titles overall that season.


title: Rod Laver

text: Overall, despite turning 30 just months after the Open Era began, Laver had tremendous success, winning 74 singles titles, which remains seventh most of the era. Plus, like most players of his day, he regularly played doubles, winning 37 titles.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver had a long-running, friendly rivalry with Ken Rosewall between 1963, when he started out as a pro, and 1976, when both were semi-retired from the main tour. Including tournaments and one-night stands, they played over 130 matches, all of them as professionals, with some results from the barnstorming pro tours lost or badly recorded. Overall a match score of 89–75 in favour of Laver can be documented.


title: Rod Laver

text: Against the older Pancho Gonzales, whom he played 1964 to 1970 on the pro tour, Laver had a lead of 43–22.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver had another, even longer rivalry with his fellow Queenslander Roy Emerson. They met first on the senior amateur tour in 1958 and dominated the amateur circuit until 1962, before Laver turned pro. When open tennis arrived in 1968, Emerson joined the pro tour, and had many new battles with Laver. Overall the score is 49–18 in favour of Laver, with 7–2 in major Grand Slam tournaments.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver had also many battles with Lew Hoad in his first years on the pro circuit 1963–1966. Although he lost the first eight matches in January 1963, Laver later in the year began to turn around their rivalry, and until 1966, he had built a 38–21 lead. Against Arthur Ashe, Laver had a head-to-head lead of 21–3, winning all of the first 18 matches. Ashe's first win came in 1974, when Laver was 35. Another younger rival in the Open Era was John Newcombe, whom Laver led 16–5 in their head-to-head score.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver helped Australia win the Davis Cup four consecutive times from 1959 to 1962. In 1973, professionals were permitted to play in the Davis Cup for the first time, and Laver was on a winning team for the fifth time, claiming two singles and a doubles rubber in the final as Australia beat the United States 5–0. Australia were crowned Davis Cup champions in each of the five seasons Laver played in the competition. Laver won 16 out of 20 Davis Cup singles matches and all four of his doubles.


title: Rod Laver

text: Although of a slightly short and medium build (1.73 m/5 ft 8"), Laver developed a technically complete serve-and-volley game, with aggressive groundstrokes to back it up. Commentator Dan Maskell described him as "technically faultless". His left-handed serve was well disguised and wide swinging. His groundstrokes on both flanks were hit with topspin, as was the attacking topspin lob, which Laver developed into a weapon. His stroke technique was based on quick shoulder turns, true swings, and accurate timing. His backhand, often hit on the run, was a point-ender that gave him an advantage. Laver was very quick and had a strong left forearm. Rex Bellamy wrote, "The strength of that wrist and forearm gave him blazing power without loss of control, even when he was on the run and at full stretch. The combination of speed and strength, especially wrist strength, enabled him to hit ferocious winners when way out of court." At the net, he had forcing volleys, often hit as stroke volleys. Especially on the backhand, he could hit sharp underspin angles as well. He was difficult to lob, because of his springing agility, and when forced to retreat, he could come up with a vicious counterpunch.


title: Rod Laver

text: As an amateur, Laver was a somewhat flashy player, often a late starter. He had to learn to control his adventurous shot-making and integrate percentage tennis into his game when he turned professional. In his prime, he could adapt his style to all surfaces and to all conditions. Laver had a strong record in five-set-matches, often turning things around with subtle changes of tactics.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players in the history of the sport. Laver was ranked the world No. 1 amateur in 1961 by Lance Tingay and in 1962 by Tingay and Ned Potter. Laver was the number one professional in some rankings in 1964, in all rankings from 1965 to 1969 and in some rankings in 1970.


title: Rod Laver

text: Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter, ranked Laver only in the "second echelon" of great players, just behind the six best. He writes that although Laver was "absolutely unbeatable for a year or two late in the 1960s", a "careful comparison" could be made between Laver and the somewhat older Gonzales and that Kramer is "positive that Gonzales could have beaten Laver regularly." Kramer's main argument for downgrading Laver is that, "Ken Rosewall beat Laver in those two World Championship of Tennis finals and that was a title Laver really wanted." Kramer sees as evidence of Gonzales' superiority over Laver the fact that Gonzales defeated Laver in a five-set match before 15,000 spectators in New York City's Madison Square Garden in January 1970, when Gonzales was 41 years old and Laver was still considered the World No. 1 player. On the other hand, Gonzales was still a top ten player when this match took place and Laver subsequently won this event, beating Gonzales in a straight-sets semifinal. Overall, his head-to-head-record with Gonzales was either 35–19 or 38–21 in favour of Laver, depending on the source. Laver was 12–5 against Gonzales during the Open Era, although Gonzales was then in his late thirties.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1975, Don Budge ranked his top five players of all time and rated Laver number five behind Vines, Kramer, Perry and Tilden.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1978, Ellsworth Vines ranked his all time top 10 in "Tennis Myth and Method" and rated Laver number four behind Budge, Kramer and Gonzales.


title: Rod Laver

text: In the early years of the 21st century, Sidney Wood compiled his list of the Greatest Players of All Time (later published posthumously in a memoir "The Wimbledon final that never was and other tennis tales from a bygone era"). Wood first entered Wimbledon in 1927 and won the title in 1931. "From that time on, through to the late 1970s (doubles only towards the end), I was privileged to compete against virtually every top player in the world" said Wood. Wood ranked Laver number five, behind Budge, Kramer, Tilden and Gonzales.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 2014, Frank Sedgman ranked Laver number three, behind Jack Kramer and Roger Federer, in his greatest male tennis players of all time list in his autobiography 'Game, Sedge and Match'.


title: Rod Laver

text: Many experts disagree with Kramer's assessment of Laver. For example, Dan Maskell, John Barrett, Butch Buchholz, Cliff Drysdale, Joe McCauley, Ted Schroeder, and Tony Trabert rank Laver as the best of all time. Schroeder has been quoted by Alan Trengove as saying, "You take all the criteria – longevity, playing on grass and clay, amateur, professional, his behaviour, his appearance – in all criteria, Laver's the best player of all time." Trabert said in January 2008, "I still maintain that Rod Laver is the best player who ever played the game because he's done something no one has ever done in the 120 or 140-year history of our sport: he won the Grand Slam as an amateur and he won the Grand Slam as a pro. If someone in some other sport held a world record no one else had, you would say that person was the best in that sport. So in my view, you've got to say Laver is the best player of all time." Similarly, the tennis author Peter Bodo wrote in May 2008, "Give him credit? Shoot, the only real issue is whether the GOAT [Greatest of All Time] argument is a debate at all, given that posting those two Slams puts Laver in a league of his own." Other experts cite the fact that during his amateur, touring professional, and Open Era careers, Laver won a record 184 singles titles. He also holds the record for most titles won in a single year during the amateur era (22 in 1962), during the touring pro era (19 in 1967), and during the Open Era (18 in 1969). After turning professional in 1963, Laver won the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships five times and the Wembley Pro Championship four times from 1964 to 1967. In 1967, Laver won a "Professional Grand Slam" by winning all four of the major professional tournaments: the US Pro Championships, the Wembley Pro Championships, the French Pro Championship, and the Wimbledon Pro.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1983, Fred Perry ranked the greatest male players of all time and put them in to two categories, before World War 2 and after. Perry ranked Laver number one in the post-World War 2 list.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver came out on top in various experts polls for the best of all time. In 1986, the US magazine "Inside Tennis" polled 37 experts, which resulted in a computerised tournament. Laver ranked first on this list ahead of John McEnroe, Don Budge, Kramer, Björn Borg, Gonzales, Tilden, Jimmy Connors, Fred Perry, and Lew Hoad. In a poll by the Associated Press in 2000, Laver was voted "The Male Tennis Player of the Century", ahead of Pete Sampras, Tilden, Borg, Budge, McEnroe and Hoad (tied), Rosewall and Roy Emerson (tied), and Kramer. In an article in "Tennis Week" in 2007, the tennis historian Raymond Lee statistically analysed the all-time best players. Laver topped his list ahead of Tilden and Borg (tied), Roger Federer, Gonzales, Rosewall, Budge, Ivan Lendl, Connors, Sampras, McEnroe, and Kramer. In 2009 it was written that Rod Laver "is considered by most folks who saw him play and many who've heard of his accomplishments, to be as great a tennis player that ever lived—current players included.". In July 2017, tennis player Roger Federer called Rod Laver the greatest of all-time.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1989, Bud Collins wrote, "I remain unconvinced that there ever was a better player than Rod Laver". Thirteen years later, however, as editor of the "Total Tennis, The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia", Collins was more guarded. He wrote that Laver would "be known as possibly the greatest player ever", but also said that Gonzales was "probably as good as anyone who ever played the game, if not better"—and called Tilden "perhaps the greatest player of them all". In an August 2006 article for MSNBC, Collins ranked Laver as one of the five top men's tennis stars of all time, along with Tilden, Gonzales, Borg, and Sampras. He pointed to Tilden's "phenomenal .938 winning percentage", and said "If I had to choose someone to play for my life it would be Pancho Gonzalez", praised Borg's uncanny transition from the French Open to Wimbledon, cited Sampras's "assault on the citadels of the past", and called Laver "in my eyes, the greatest player ever".


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1973, the ATP's computer rankings were established. Laver attained his highest ranking on that computer of World No. 3 in 1974. Laver's highest year-end ranking by the ATP was World No. 4 in 1974. Laver semi-retired from the main professional tennis tour in 1975 while still being ranked in the top 10. In terms of yearly prize money won, Laver was the leader from 1964 until 1971. The number of tournament singles titles that Laver won during his career varies depending on the source. The ATP credits Laver with 72 Open Era titles while "Total Tennis: The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia" (edited by Bud Collins), give him 47 or 54 titles during the Open Era. Collins credits him with 184 titles in amateur, professional, and open competition, without listing them in detail.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver's eleven Grand Slam singles titles currently place him tied with Borg for sixth place on the all-time list. Among his contemporaries, only Emerson won more Grand Slam singles titles during his career (12 to Laver's 11), though more recently Federer, Nadal, Sampras, and Djokovic have surpassed this number. Laver also won eight Major doubles titles. Laver is the only player to have twice won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments during the same calendar year – the Australian Open, US Open, and Wimbledon. Because none of the Majors were played on hardcourts in Laver's era, he never won a Grand Slam tournament on that surface. The tennis landscape today is different as half of the year's Majors are played on hardcourts. Only six players have won Major titles on clay, grass and hardcourts: Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are the only players in history to have simultaneously held Grand Slam tournament titles on the three surfaces.


title: Rod Laver

text: Previous observations change substantially if we also consider professional grand slam majors, which were played on two different surfaces in the 1963-67 period (grass and wood/parquet), and wherein Laver, like Rosewall, excelled. Furthermore, the ATP Performance Zone website lists his (partial) career win/loss percentage on hardcourt as .813, on carpet as .766, on grass as .827 and on clay as .764.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver was unable to compete in the Grand Slam tournaments during his professional career between 1963 and 1968 and it is argued he would likely have won more titles had he been able to do so. Sports columnist Malcolm Knox of the Sydney Morning Herald assesses the effect of Laver's ban on competing in Grand Slams. He states: "..if grand slams are taken as the benchmark, consider this. Laver won 11 of the 16 grand slam titles he contested in his prime. The pro tour put him out of 20 grand slams from age 23 to 28". Based on this he puts Laver and Rosewall in "a class of two".


title: Rod Laver

text: The hall at the Rockhampton Tennis Association's Victoria Park precinct in Wandal where Laver competed until the age of 14 was named the Rod Laver Hall upon its completion in December 1963 in recognition of his Grand Slam win the previous year.


title: Rod Laver

text: In 1969, Laver was awarded the ABC Sportsman of the Year Award. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and upgraded to a Legend of Australian Sport in 2002. He is also an Australian Living Treasure. In 1998, Laver received the Philippe Chatrier Award (the ITF's highest accolade) for his contributions to tennis and in 2000, Centre Court at the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne was renamed Rod Laver Arena.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver was named as a Queensland Great in June 2005. In 2009, he was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame. Also in 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Laver was named one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland.


title: Rod Laver

text: Bronze busts of Laver and Margaret Court by sculptor Barbara McLean were unveiled at Melbourne Park in 1993 upon their induction into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame. Another bronze bust of Laver, also by McLean, was installed on the banks of the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton's city centre which was unveiled by Laver and Rockhampton City Council deputy mayor Dell Bunt on 7 December 2002. There was some concern raised by the local community when the bust was removed in 2016 during the riverbank redevelopment. However, the bust was re-installed upon the completion of the redevelopment which was officially opened in 2018, with the recreational precinct on the low bank being named Rod Laver Plaza. A bronze statue of Laver by sculptor Lis Johnson was unveiled at Melbourne Park prior to the 2017 Australian Open.


title: Rod Laver

text: On 27 July 1998, Laver suffered a stroke while being interviewed by ESPN-TV in the United States for their "SportsCentury" 20th Century sports retrospective series. He was hospitalised for a month and suffered from memory and speech difficulties after the stroke, but recovered over the course of the following year. In 2000, the centre court at Melbourne Park, which today hosts the Australian Open, was named the Rod Laver Arena in his honour. In 2003, Laver, along with his fellow Australian tennis superstar Margaret Court, was honoured with his portrait on a postage stamp by the "Australia Post Australian Legends Award".


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver returned to his native country to present Roger Federer in 2006 and 2017, Rafael Nadal in 2009, and Novak Djokovic in 2012, the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, which is awarded to the Men's Singles winner of the Australian Open. He was present at Wimbledon to witness Federer make tennis history, when he surpassed Pete Sampras' record by winning his 15th Grand Slam Title.


title: Rod Laver

text: After the short-lived reintroduction of knighthoods in Australia in 2014, there were calls for Laver to be knighted within the Order of Australia. In 2016 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, by which time knighthoods had again been abolished and the Companion was the highest honour available in the Order.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver resides in Carlsbad, California, and attended San Diego Chargers games on occasion. On October 1, 2017, he was inducted into the Southern California Tennis Hall of Fame.


title: Rod Laver

text: Laver joined the professional tennis circuit in 1963 and as a consequence was banned from competing in the amateur Grand Slams until the start of the Open Era at the 1968 French Open.


title: Rod Laver

text: Notes on sources: John Bercow's book "Tennis Maestros: The Twenty Greatest Male Tennis Players of All Time" confirms in chapter 9 Rod Laver's titles for the following years 1962 (22), 1965 (17), 1966 (16), 1967 (19), 1970 (15), 1971 (7), 1972 (5), 1973 (7), 1974 (6). The ITF confirms titles in 1975 (5) titles.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: Meadow Mariangela Soprano, played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series "The Sopranos". She was born in 1982. In the early seasons, Meadow is introduced as a smart but spoiled party-goer, whose over-dramatic personality and state of being in denial reveal a somewhat troubled upbringing. In the later seasons, her character developed with her understanding of the reality of life, money, politics, and relationships. Her growth would foreshadow that of her younger brother, A.J.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: In 1997, Sigler was cast as Meadow Soprano. When her manager first told her about the audition for "The Sopranos", Sigler thought she would have to sing as a soprano.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: Meadow, born in 1982, is the first-born child of Tony and Carmela Soprano. She was active in extracurricular activities in high school, playing on the championship girls' soccer team, and singing in the chorus and school pageants. She attended Columbia University, and performed well in her classes as a National Honor Society member. Due to all these accomplishments and extra curriculars, She is praised by both Tony and Carmela which causes tension between her and A.J.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: After struggling through her first year in college, she volunteered regularly at the South Bronx Law Center.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: Her employment there added to the friction between Meadow and her father relating to race relations, specifically with regard to Tony's racist attitude towards Black people. After graduating, Meadow, who was interested in being a pediatrician, studied for medical school. She had second thoughts and later considered a career in the legal profession.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: Meadow was often resentful of her lineage, stemming from a string of failed relationships, beginning with a fellow Columbia student named Noah Tannenbaum. Due to his mixed racial parentage from an African American mother and a Jewish father, Noah was met with Tony's racist disapproval and broke up with Meadow after his own father seemed disconcerted with Tony's occupation.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: This was followed by a romance with Jackie Aprile Jr., the son of Tony's deceased friend and fellow mobster, Jackie Aprile Sr. Meadow fell in love with Jackie Jr., but their temporary happiness together ended when he cheated on her and became increasingly involved in organized crime. Jackie ultimately organized a robbery involving a card game in which one man was killed and two others wounded.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: After this incident, and following Tony's instructions to make a timely resolution to the matter, Ralph Cifaretto decided to kill Jackie Jr. As Jackie was exiting his hiding place, Vito Spatafore came up behind him and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. The hit was publicized as a drug deal with African Americans gone bad, a story which Meadow publicly accepted, though she privately surmised that Jackie was killed by the mob. Her acceptance of his murder spiraled into problems elsewhere, as she struggled with depression and used alcohol and drugs while a college freshman.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: Just before Jackie Jr.'s death, Meadow came to realize that he was unfaithful, but his death nevertheless distressed her strongly. She initially blamed Tony for Jackie's involvement with crime and Carmela for standing by and supporting Tony. Unbeknownst to Meadow, it was Tony that had attempted to discourage Jackie's mafia aspirations, having promised Jackie Sr. on his deathbed to see that Jackie Jr. stayed away from the mob life.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: During her teens, Meadow was both very aware and resentful of her father's criminal enterprise and her family's complicity therein. Meadow reconciled herself with these facts and her attitude strongly mirrored Tony's own. Publicly, she cited her father's position as a "waste management consultant," but in closer circles she rationalized the Mafia as a cultural tradition borne out of discrimination against her ancestors' social and ethnic origins. Her life seemed further stabilized by her engagement to a Columbia dental student, Finn DeTrolio, of which her father approved. It was later revealed that Finn and Meadow broke off the engagement.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: At the film premiere for "Cleaver", Meadow reunited with and started dating Patrick Parisi, the son of Patsy Parisi, one of Tony's soldiers. Meadow decided not to apply to medical school, but inspired by Patrick's passion for the law, applied to law school instead. She began to plan her wedding with Patrick.


title: Meadow Soprano

text: In the series' final scene, she is shown outside the diner where she arrived late for meeting her family for dinner. She makes a number of efforts to parallel park before she succeeds and heads toward the diner. In the final shot of the series, Tony looks up after hearing the restaurant door open.


The 2010 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 2, 2010, as part of the 2010 midterm elections during President Barack Obama's first term in office. Voters of the 50 U.S. states chose 435 U.S. Representatives. Also, voters of the U.S. territories, commonwealths and District of Columbia chose their non-voting delegates. U.S. Senate elections and various state and local elections were held on the same date.


title: 2010 United States House of Representatives elections

text: Republicans regained control of the U.S. House they had lost in the 2006 midterm election, picking up a net total of 63 seats and erasing the gains Democrats made in 2006 and 2008. Although the sitting President's party usually loses seats in a midterm election, the 2010 election resulted in the highest losses by a party in a House midterm election since 1938, as well as the largest House swing since 1948.


text: Republicans made their largest gain in House seats since 1938. Three Democratic committee chairmen were defeated: transportation chairman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, armed services chairman Ike Skelton of Missouri, and budget chairman John Spratt of South Carolina. Democrats made three pick-ups, winning an open seat in Delaware and defeating Republican incumbents in Hawaii and Louisiana.


text: The heavy Democratic Party losses in 2010 were attributed to anger at President Obama, opposition to the Affordable Care Act and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, large budget deficits, and the weak economy. As of 2022, this remains the last election in which Democrats won a House seat in Arkansas, and the last election in which they did not win any seats in New Hampshire.


text: Following the 2006 elections, Democrats took control of the House as well as the Senate. In the 2008 elections, which coincided with Democrat Barack Obama's victory over Republican John McCain for the presidency, Democrats increased their majorities in both chambers. Of the 435 congressional districts, 242 were carried by Obama, while 193 voted for McCain. Of the districts Obama won, 34 elected a Republican to the House, while 49 of the districts McCain won elected a Democrat.


text: The Republicans' 63-seat pickup in the House to take control of that chamber, as well as their gain of six Senate seats, signified a dramatic rollback of recent Democratic gains. In the election, Republicans won their greatest number of House seats since 1946. This has been attributed to the continued economic recession, as well as President Obama's controversial stimulus and health care reform bills. Republicans also took control of 29 of the 50 state governorships and gained 690 seats in state legislatures, to hold their greatest number since the 1928 elections.


text: Republicans also made historic gains in state legislatures, adding more than 675 state legislative seats, by far surpassing their state-legislative gains in 1994. Republicans gained control of dozens of state legislative chambers, and took control of "seven more legislatures outright than they did after 1994 and the most since 1952." Republicans picked up control of the Alabama Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction; control of the North Carolina Senate for the first time since 1870; and control of the Minnesota Senate for the first time since the state returned to partisan elections in 1974.


text: The Great Lakes region, which until then had recently favored the Democratic Party, went strongly Republican. In California and the Pacific Northwest, however, the Democrats retained the upper hand. The biggest change in 2010 occurred in the Southeastern United States, which had previously been roughly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans for everything except for president. Just one white Democrat from the Deep South won reelection to the US House in 2010. Prior to 2010, many white conservative southerners had voted Republican for president, but Democratic for other offices.


text: There were nine Democrats who survived reelection in the 1994 Republican Revolution, but were defeated this year.


text: Two Democrats lost renomination. One seat was held by Democrats, while the other flipped to Republicans.


text: Fifty-four incumbents lost in the general election; all but two were Democrats. Many of the Democrats who lost had been initially elected in the Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, and several others were longtime incumbents from the southeast.


text: There were six special elections in 2010 to the 111th United States Congress, listed here by date and district.


text: The House of Representatives includes five Delegates from the District of Columbia and outlying territories elected to two-year terms and one Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico elected to a four-year term (for which the last election was held in 2008, so the seat was not up for reelection in 2010). These delegates are not allowed to vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.


title: Cortana (Halo)

text: Cortana is a fictional artificially intelligent character in the "Halo" video game series. Voiced by Jen Taylor, she appears in "" and its sequels, "Halo 2", "Halo 3", "Halo 4", " and Halo Infinite". She also briefly appears in the prequel "", as well as in several of the franchise's novels, comics, and merchandise. During gameplay, Cortana provides backstory and tactical information to the player, who often assumes the role of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. In the story, she is instrumental in preventing the activation of the Halo installations, which would have destroyed all sentient life in the galaxy.


title: Cortana (Halo)

text: Cortana's original design was based on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti; the character's holographic representation always takes the form of a woman. Game developer Bungie first introduced Cortana—and "Halo"—through the Cortana Letters, emails sent during "Combat Evolved"s production in 1999.


title: Cortana (Halo)

text: The relationship between Cortana and Master Chief has been highlighted by reviewers as one of the most important parts of the "Halo" games' story. Cortana has been recognized for her believability and character depth, as well as her sex appeal. The character was the inspiration for Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant of the same name.


title: Cortana (Halo)

text: Cortana is an artificial intelligence found in the "Halo" franchise. In the video games, Cortana often serves as an advisor and assistant to the player character, hacking alien computer systems and decoding transmissions. She speaks most of the first game's dialogue, and serves as a talkative foil for the quieter Master Chief, as well as a way of relaying information and objectives to the player.


title: Cortana (Halo)

text: According to her backstory, Cortana was derived from the cloned brain of Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, the creator of the SPARTAN-II supersoldier project; Halsey's synapses became the basis for Cortana's processors. Cortana and other AIs are subject to a seven-year lifespan, after which they begin to dissemble and think themselves to death in a process known as rampancy.


title: Cortana (Halo)

text: As an artificial construct, Cortana has no physical form or being. Cortana speaks with a smooth female voice, and projects a holographic image of herself as a woman. Cortana is said to resemble Halsey, with a similar attitude "unchecked by military and social protocol". In "", Cortana is described as slender, with close-cropped hair and a skin hue that varies from navy blue to lavender, depending on her mood. Numbers and symbols flash across her form when she is thinking. Halsey sees Cortana as a teenage version of herself: smarter than her parents, always "talking, learning, and eager to share her knowledge". Cortana is described as having a sardonic sense of humor and often cracks jokes or wryly comments, even during combat.


title: Cortana (Halo)

text: Cortana's first game appearance is in 2001's "". Humanity is locked in a losing war with the alien Covenant. Cortana plots a course for the human ship "Pillar of Autumn" to escape the Covenant. This heading leads to the discovery of a massive ringworld, Halo, built by a mysterious race known as the Forerunners. Cortana defends the ship from the Covenant until she is given to the supersoldier Master Chief to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. Cortana helps direct human survivors scattered across the ring and assists the Master Chief in his missions. Inserted into Halo's Control Room, Cortana realizes that the ring serves as a prison for the parasitic Flood; activating Halo would mean destroying all sentient life in the galaxy to prevent the Flood's spread. Cortana assists Master Chief in destroying the ring and escaping.