title: Drowning Pool

text: The band has faced some controversies and criticism due to the alleged misinterpretation of the lyrics to their most well-known song "Bodies". In 2011, the song was associated with the assassination attempt of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Shortly after the shooting, the band made a statement addressing the link: "We were devastated this weekend to learn of the tragic events that occurred in Arizona and that our music has been misinterpreted. 'Bodies' was written about the brotherhood of the moshpit and was never about violence." The band also added: "For someone to put out a video misinterpreting a song about a moshpit as fuel for a violent act shows just how sick they really are. We support those who do what they can to keep America safe. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families of this terrible tragedy".


title: Drowning Pool

text: "Bodies" was used consistently by interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps in 2003, and was consistently played over a 10-day period in 2006 during interrogations of Mohamedou Ould Slahi while he was "exposed to variable lighting patterns" at the same time.


title: Drowning Pool

text: Drowning Pool's style has been considered alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge and nu metal, as well as being part of the new wave of American heavy metal. The band's influences include Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Anthrax, Testament, Slipknot, Alice in Chains, SOiL, Opeth, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Black Sabbath, Slayer, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, the Beatles, Pantera, Sepultura and Suicidal Tendencies.


title: Parotid gland

text: The parotid gland is a major salivary gland in many animals. In humans, the two parotid glands are present on either side of the mouth and in front of both ears. They are the largest of the salivary glands. Each parotid is wrapped around the mandibular ramus, and secretes serous saliva through the parotid duct into the mouth, to facilitate mastication and swallowing and to begin the digestion of starches. There are also two other types of salivary glands; they are submandibular and sublingual glands. Sometimes accessory parotid glands are found close to the main parotid glands.


title: Parotid gland

text: The word parotid literally means "beside the ear". From Greek παρωτίς (stem παρωτιδ-) : (gland) behind the ear < παρά - pará : in front, and οὖς - ous (stem ὠτ-, ōt-) : ear.


title: Parotid gland

text: The parotid glands are a pair of mainly serous salivary glands located below and in front of each ear canal, draining their secretions into the vestibule of the mouth through the parotid duct. Each gland lies behind the mandibular ramus and in front of the mastoid process of the temporal bone. The gland can be felt on either side, by feeling in front of each ear, along the cheek, and below the angle of the mandible.


title: Parotid gland

text: The parotid duct, a long excretory duct, emerges from the front of each gland, superficial to the masseter muscle. The duct pierces the buccinator muscle, then opens into the mouth on the inner surface of the cheek, usually opposite the maxillary second molar. The parotid papilla is a small elevation of tissue that marks the opening of the parotid duct on the inner surface of the cheek.


title: Parotid gland

text: The gland has four surfaces – superficial or lateral, superior, anteromedial, and posteromedial. The gland has three borders – anterior, medial, and posterior. The parotid gland has two ends – superior end in the form of small superior surface and an inferior end (apex).


title: Parotid gland

text: Sometimes accessory parotid glands are found as an anatomic variation. These are close to the main glands and consist of ectopic salivary gland tissue.


title: Parotid gland

text: Capsule of the parotid gland is formed from the investing layer of the deep cervical fascia. It is supplied by great auricular nerve. The fascia splits to enclose the gland. This splitting occurs between the angle of the mandible and the mastoid process. The "superficial lamina (parotidomassetric fascia)" is thick and is attached to zygomatic arch. The deep lamina is thin and is attached to styloid process, tympanic plate and the ramus of the mandible. The part of deep lamina extending between the styloid process and the mandible is thickened to form "stylomastoid ligament." The stylomandibular ligament separates parotid gland from the superficial lobe of the submandibular gland.


title: Parotid gland

text: The external carotid artery and its terminal branches within the gland, namely, the superficial temporal and the maxillary artery, also the posterior auricular artery supply the parotid gland. Venous return is to the retromandibular veins.


title: Parotid gland

text: The gland is mainly drained into the preauricular or parotid lymph nodes which ultimately drain to the deep cervical chain.


title: Parotid gland

text: The parotid gland receives both sensory and autonomic innervation. General sensory innervation to the parotid gland, its sheath, and the overlying skin is provided by the auriculotemporal nerve. The autonomic innervation controls the rate of saliva production and is supplied by the glossopharyngeal nerve.


title: Parotid gland

text: The cell bodies of the preganglionic sympathetic fibres usually lie in the lateral horns of upper thoracic spinal segments (T1-T3). Postganglionic sympathetic fibers from superior cervical sympathetic ganglion reach the gland as periarterial nerve plexuses around the external carotid artery and their function is mainly vasoconstriction.


title: Parotid gland

text: Preganglionic parasympathetic fibers leave the brain stem from inferior salivatory nucleus in the glossopharyngeal nerve and then through its tympanic and then the lesser petrosal branch pass into the otic ganglion. There, they synapse with postganglionic fibers which reach the gland by hitch-hiking via the auriculotemporal nerve, a branch of the mandibular nerve.


title: Parotid gland

text: The gland has a capsule of its own of dense connective tissue but is also provided with a false capsule by the investing layer of the deep cervical fascia. The fascia at the imaginary line between the angle of the mandible and the mastoid process splits into a superficial and a deep lamina to enclose the gland. The risorius is a small muscle embedded with this capsule substance.


title: Parotid gland

text: The gland has short, striated ducts and long, intercalated ducts. The intercalated ducts are also numerous and lined with cuboidal epithelial cells and have lumina larger than those of the acini. The striated ducts are also numerous and consist of simple columnar epithelium, having striations that represent the infolded basal cell membranes and mitochondria.


title: Parotid gland

text: Though the parotid gland is the largest, it provides only 25% of the total salivary volume. The serous cell predominates in the parotid, making the gland secrete a mainly serous secretory product.


title: Parotid gland

text: The parotid gland also secretes salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), which is the first step in the decomposition of starches during mastication. It is the main exocrine gland to secrete this. It breaks down amylose (straight chain starch) and amylopectin (branched starch) by hydrolyzing alpha 1,4 bonds. Additionally, the alpha amylase has been suggested to prevent bacterial attachment to oral surfaces and to enable bacterial clearance from the mouth.


title: Parotid gland

text: The parotid salivary glands appear early in the sixth week of the prenatal development and are the first major salivary glands formed. The epithelial buds of these glands are located on the inner part of the cheek, near the labial commissures of the primitive mouth (from ectodermal lining near angles of the stomodeum in the 1st/2nd pharyngeal arches; the stomodeum itself is created from the rupturing of the oropharyngeal membrane at about 26 days.) These buds grow posteriorly toward the otic placodes of the ears and branch to form solid cords with rounded terminal ends near the developing facial nerve. Later, at around 10 weeks of prenatal development, these cords are canalized and form ducts, with the largest becoming the parotid duct for the parotid gland. The rounded terminal ends of the cords form the acini of the glands. Secretion by the parotid glands via the parotid duct begins at about 18 weeks of gestation. Again, the supporting connective tissue of the gland develops from the surrounding mesenchyme.


title: Parotid gland

text: Mumps is seen to be a common cause of parotid gland swelling85% of cases occur in children younger than 15 years. The disease is highly contagious and spreads by airborne droplets from salivary, nasal, and urinary secretions. Symptoms include oedema in the area, trismus as well as otalgia. The lesion tends to begin on one side of the face and eventually becomes bilateral. The transmission of the paramyxovirus is by contact with the infected persons saliva. Initial symptoms tend to be a headache and fever. Mumps is not fatal, however further complications can include swelling of the ovaries or the testes. Diagnosis of mumps is confirmed through viral serology, management of the condition includes hydration and good oral hygiene of the patient requiring excellent motivation. However, since the development of the mumps vaccine, given at the age of between 4–6 years, the incidence of this viral infection has greatly reduced. This vaccine has reduced the incidence by 99%.


title: Parotid gland

text: Neoplastic lesions of the parotid salivary gland can either be benign or malignant. Within the parotid gland, nearly 80% of tumours are benign. Benign lesions tend to be painless, asymptomatic and slow-growing. The most common salivary gland neoplasms in children are hemangiomas, lymphatic malformations, and pleomorphic adenomas. Diagnosis of benign lesions require a fine-needle-like aspiration biopsy. With various benign lesions, most commonly the pleomorphic adenoma, there is a risk of developing malignancy over time. As a result, these lesions are typically resected.


title: Parotid gland

text: Pleomorphic adenoma is seen to be a common benign neoplasm of the salivary gland and has an overall incidence of 54–68%. The Warthin tumour has a lower incidence of 6–10%; this tumour is associated with smoking and is more common in older men. Benign lesions of the parotid gland have a significantly higher incidence than malignant lesions.


title: Parotid gland

text: Malignant salivary gland lesions are rare. However, when a tumour extends to the submandibular, sublingual and the minor salivary glands, they tend to be malignant. Distinguishing a malignant lesion from a benign one may be difficult as they both present as painless lesions. A biopsy is crucial in aiding diagnosis. There are common signs that can highlight the presence of a malignant lesion. These include facial nerve weakness, rapid increase of the size of the lump as well as ulceration of the mucosa of the skin.


title: Parotid gland

text: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma is a common malignant tumour of the salivary glands and has a low incidence of 4–13%. Adenoid cystic carcinoma is also a common malignant salivary gland lesion and has an incidence of 4–8%. This carcinoma tends to invade nerves and can re-occur post-treatment.


title: Parotid gland

text: A developmental polycystic disease of the salivary gland is seen to be extremely rare and is seen to be independent of recurrent parotitis. The cause is thought to be a defect in the interactions between activin, follistatin and TGF-β, leading to a developmental disorder of glandular tissue.


title: Parotid gland

text: Inflammation of one or both parotid glands is known as parotitis. The most common cause of parotitis is mumps. Widespread vaccination against mumps has markedly reduced the incidence of mumps parotitis. The pain of mumps is due to the swelling of the gland within its fibrous capsule.


title: Parotid gland

text: Apart from viral infection, other infections, such as bacterial, can cause parotitis (acute suppurative parotitis or chronic parotitis). These infections may cause blockage of the duct by salivary duct calculi or external compression. Parotid gland swellings can also be due to benign lymphoepithelial lesions caused by Mikulicz disease and Sjögren syndrome. Swelling of the parotid gland may also indicate the eating disorder bulimia nervosa, creating the look of a heavy jaw line. With the inflammation of mumps or obstruction of the ducts, increased levels of the salivary alpha amylase secreted by the parotid gland can be detected in the blood stream.


title: Parotid gland

text: Salivary stones mainly occur within the main confluence of the ducts and within the main parotid duct. The patient usually complains of intense pain when salivating and tends to avoid foods which produce this symptom. In addition, the parotid gland may become enlarged upon trying to eat. The pain can be reproduced in clinic by squirting lemon juice into the mouth. Surgery depends upon the site of the stone: if within the anterior aspect of the duct, a simple incision into the buccal mucosa with sphinterotomy may allow removal; however, if situated more posteriorly within the main duct, complete gland excision may be necessary.


title: Parotid gland

text: The parotid salivary gland can also be pierced and the facial nerve temporarily traumatized when an inferior alveolar local anesthesia nerve block is incorrectly administered, causing transient facial paralysis.


title: Parotid gland

text: About 80% of tumors of the parotid gland are benign. The most common of these include pleomorphic adenoma (70% of tumors, of which 60% occur in females) and Warthin tumor (i.e. adenolymphoma, which is more common in males than in females). Their importance is in relation to their anatomical position and tendency to grow over time. The tumorous growth can also change the consistency of the gland and cause facial pain on the involved side.


title: Parotid gland

text: Around 20% of parotid tumors are malignant, with the most common tumors being mucoepidermoid carcinoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma. Other malignant tumors of the parotid gland include acinic cell carcinoma, carcinoma expleomorphic adenoma, adenocarcinoma (arising from ductal epithelium of parotid gland), squamous cell carcinoma (arising from parenchyma of parotid gland), and undifferentiated carcinoma. Metastasis from other sites like phyllodes tumour of breast presenting as parotid swelling have also been described. Critically, the relationship of the tumor to the branches of the facial nerve (CN VII) must be defined because resection may damage the nerves, resulting in paralysis of the muscles of facial expression.


title: Parotid gland

text: Surgical treatment of parotid gland tumors is sometimes difficult because of the anatomical relations of the facial nerve parotid lodge, as well as the increased potential for postoperative relapse. Thus, detection of early stages of a parotid tumor is extremely important in terms of postoperative prognosis. Operative technique is laborious, because of relapses and incomplete previous treatment made in other border specialties. Surgical techniques in parotid surgery have evolved in the last years with the use of neuromonitoring of the facial nerve and have become safer and less invasive.


title: Parotid gland

text: After surgical removal of the parotid gland (Parotidectomy), the auriculotemporal nerve is liable to damage and upon recovery it fuses with sweat glands. This can cause sweating on the cheek on the side of the face of the affected gland. This condition is known as Frey's syndrome.


title: Parotid gland

text: Commonly caused by a retrograde bacterial infection as a result of illness, sepsis, trauma, surgery, reduced salivary flow due to medications, diabetes, malnutrition and dehydration. Classically symptoms of painful swelling in the parotid region when eating seen. Management is based upon antibacterials, rehydration combined with gentle massage to encourage salivary flow.


title: Parotid gland

text: A latent infection despite clinical resolution of the disease resulting in impaired function. Histologically glandular duct dilation, abscess formation and atrophy may be seen. Parotid secretions are viscous. Disease course shows pain and swelling, waxing and waning. Radiographic screening should be undertaken to rule out sialolith. Management with palliative care with parotidectomy as a last resort.


title: Parotid gland

text: Acute non-suppurative disease that often occurs in epidemics. Prevented by MMR vaccine. Caused by paramyxovirus that is transmitted by infected saliva and urine. A prodromal period of 24–28 hours is experienced, followed by rapid and painful swelling of the parotid gland. Treatment is supportive (bedrest, hydration) as spontaneous resolution occurs within 5–10 days.


title: Parotid gland

text: Diffuse gland enlargement is seen, and may affect patients throughout all stages of the infection. Lymphoepithelial cysts seen via imaging help aid diagnosis. Pathogenic process occurs due to circulating CD8 lymphocytes within the salivary gland. Medical management via use of antiretrovirals, excellent oral hygiene measures and sialogogues.


title: Parotid gland

text: Most commonly seen in fourth and fifth decades in women, and can affect any salivary gland. Presentation is a slowly enlarging gland, with diagnosis made by identification of the underlying systemic disorder and measurements of salivary chemical levels. Sodium and chloride ion levels will be elevated two or three times normal levels. Treatment is by addressing the underlying systemic condition.


title: Parotid gland

text: Sarcoidosis is a chronic systemic disease characterised by the production of non-caseating granulomas of unknown aetiology. It can affect any organ of the body, depressing cellular immunity and enhancing humoral immunity.


title: Parotid gland

text: Salivary gland involvement primarily involves the parotid gland, causing enlargement and swelling. Salivary gland biopsy with histopathologic examination is needed to make the distinction between whether Sjoren’s syndrome or sarcoidosis is the cause of this.


title: Parotid gland

text: Salivary gland enlargement occurs in up to 30% of patients with Sjogren’s syndrome, with the parotid gland being most often enlarged, and bilateral parotid gland enlargement seen in 25–60% of patients. However, the parotid glands have a longer-lasting secretory capacity in Sjogren’s syndrome patient and therefore are the last glands to manifest hyposalivation in the disease. Histopathology shows clustering of lymphocytic infiltrates and epimyoepithelial islands.


title: Parotid gland

text: The most common head and neck manifestation of tuberculosis mycobacterial disease is infection of cervical lymph nodes. The infection is thought to originate in the tonsils or gingiva, ascending to the parotid gland. Two clinical forms; acute and chronic lesions. Acute lesions have diffuse glandular edema, easily confused with acute sialdentitis or abscess. The chronic lesions occur as slow growing masses mimicking tumors.


title: Parotid gland

text: A patient with parotid swelling may complain of swelling, pain, xerostomia, bad taste and sometimes sialorrhoea.


title: Parotid gland

text: The most common presenting symptom of neoplasms (both benign and malignant) is an asymptomatic swelling. Pain is more common in patients with parotid cancer (10–29% feel pain) than those with benign neoplasms (only 2.5–4%), but pain itself it not diagnostic of malignancy.


title: Parotid gland

text: Episodic swelling of major salivary glands accompanied by pain and related to salivary stimuli suggests duct obstruction.


title: Parotid gland

text: Also need to assess the facial nerve. The facial nerve passes through the parotid so may be affected if there is a change in the parotid gland. Facial nerve paralysis in a previously untreated patient usually indicates that a tumour is malignant.


title: Parotid gland

text: The superficial location of the salivary glands allows palpation and visual inspection. The inspection must be systematic, both intraorally and extraorally, so no area is missed.


title: Parotid gland

text: For extraoral examination the patients head should be inclined forwards in order to maximally expose the parotid and submandibular glands. A normal parotid gland is barely palpable and a normal sublingual gland is not palpable.


title: Parotid gland

text: Intra-oral examination should include observations for asymmetry, discolouration, pulsation and obstructions in the duct orifices. Swelling of the deep lobe of the parotid gland may be seen intra-orally, and may also displace the tonsil. The minor salivary glands should be examined. The labial, buccal and posterior palatal mucosa should be dried with an air blower or tissue and pressed to assess the flow of saliva.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: Half Girlfriend is an Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name written by Chetan Bhagat. The film is directed by Mohit Suri and stars Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor in lead roles.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: Principal photography commenced in June 2016 and filming locations include Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Dumraon, Varanasi, New York City and Cape Town. The film was released worldwide on 19 May 2017.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: Madhav is a good basketball player who cannot speak English well. He gets accepted into St Stephen's College Delhi based on a sports quota where he meets Riya Somani, an upper-class young girl who is allowed temporary admission based on a sports quota. They become good friends and play basketball every evening. When Madhav tells his roommate Shailesh and friends about Riya, they push him to ask Riya out for a date, but she refuses and asks him just to be a friend. Madhav's friends still encourage him to pursue Riya in the hopes that she will eventually date him.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: One night Madhav and Riya hang out together. Madhav picks her up from her house, and after spending the evening together, when she returns home, she kisses Madhav before entering her house.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: When Madhav attends Riya's birthday, he questions her about the nature of their relationship. Uncomfortable, Riya says that she is not his girlfriend, but they can maybe reach a compromise since they have reached halfway, and she offers to be his "Half Girlfriend." One afternoon after a game Madhav asks Riya if she would like to rest in his room in a boys only dorm, where (goaded by his peers and feeling humiliated by Riya's uncertainty) Madhav tries to force himself upon Riya. Upset and hurt, a few days later, Riya tells Madhav that she is leaving college and getting married. Madhav tries to stop her but she leaves.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: After completing college, Madhav goes back to his village where Madhav's mother runs a school where only boys study because there are no girls' toilets. Madhav learns that Bill Gates is coming to Patna and will be funding grants to schools. Madhav decides to apply for a grant, for which he goes to Chanakya hotel in Patna.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: After the meeting, Madhav meets Riya, who is living in the hotel and works for Closeup. They hang out for some time, and Madhav learns that Riya has divorced because her husband and his mother tried to beat her. As Madhav needs to give a speech in English for Bill Gates, Riya helps him prepare for it. One day, he takes her to his house, where Madhav's mother asks her about her marriage. She acts rudely after discovering that she is a divorcee. A few days before the speech, when Riya has to go back to Patna, Madhav's mother asks her to stay away from Madhav. She, however, attends Madhav's speech, where he is successful in getting a grant from the Bill Gates Foundation. After the speech had ended, a small girl from the school hands a letter from Riya to Madhav. The letter says that Riya has been diagnosed with blood cancer and will die in three months. She requests him not to search for her as she herself does not know where she will go. Madhav is seen going to Riya's house to deliver her belongings to her mother, who starts crying on learning about Riya's disease. Madhav recalls that she wanted to become a singer at a bar in New York. Unprepared, Madhav goes to New York to visit his friend Shailesh.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: Shailesh and his wife Rutvi learn about the incident and try to deviate Madhav's attention from Riya. Rutvi tries to set him up with Anshika, her friend. They spend some time together. Madhav tries to find Riya for three months continuously, until his time runs out.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: On the last day, when he was attending his farewell party, he sees a video where Anshika, who had fallen in love with him, thanks him for being a part of her life. In this video, Madhav sees a blurred picture of Riya singing in a cafe. He runs to the café and finds Riya. They reconcile and consummate their relationship. Riya explains she had lied to Madhav about being sick as his mother didn't want Riya, a divorcee to be with her son.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: A few years later, Madhav is seen talking to his mother about opening a new school, and Riya helps their daughter learn to play basketball, but she is unable to do it. Riya tells her daughter never to give up.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: Additionally, a digitally superimposed likeness of Bill Gates appears in the movie in scenes where he comes to visit Madhav's village in Bihar.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: The film went into production in March 2016. Prominent shooting locations included St. Stephen's College in New Delhi and Times Square and the UN Headquarters in New York City. It is the first Bollywood movie to be shot at the UN headquarters. The basketball action in the film is by Rob Miller, NBA and the ReelSports team. Around 200 students from different colleges were roped in to play extras as some of the scenes demand Delhi University students in the film. The trailer was released on 10 April.


title: Half Girlfriend (film)

text: The film was released on 20 May 2017 worldwide. The film collected ₹120 million on its opening day and ₹104 million on second day. On its first weekend, the total collection was noted as ₹320 million. On its second weekend, the total collection of the film stood at ₹540 million. Its lifetime worldwide gross is estimated to be 86–90 crore, with 72–77 crore earned domestically and 13–14 crore outside India.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack Skellington is a character and the main protagonist of the 1993 film "The Nightmare Before Christmas". He is a Living Skeleton who is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, a fantasy world based solely on the Halloween holiday. Jack is voiced by Chris Sarandon. Danny Elfman provided Jack's singing voice in the original film and soundtrack album, with Sarandon providing Jack's speaking and singing voice in subsequent productions.


title: Jack Skellington

text: His overall appearance is a skeleton dressed in a black pin-striped suit and a bow tie that strongly resembles a bat. Originally, his suit was meant to be completely black, but it blended with the background too well, so it was changed. At the beginning of the film, Jack makes his grand entrance by emerging out of the fountain in Halloween Town's plaza. His last name is a play on the word "skeleton". He has a ghost dog named Zero for a pet, who has a small jack-o'-lantern for a nose. He is adored by Sally, a feminine creation of Doctor Finklestein. The character is a popular design on bags, hats, clothing, umbrellas, belt buckles, pet collars, and other items.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack Skellington is the patron spirit of Halloween, portrayed as being on par with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny within his own holiday. As a living skeleton, he is supernatural and can remove parts of his body without harm, as is often demonstrated for comic relief. He is the most important of many Halloween spirits, with the implication that their job is to scare people in the real world on Halloween night.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack, as the "Pumpkin King" and master of ceremonies, is in charge of Halloween Town's Halloween celebration. He is loved, respected, and even idolized by the other residents for his role, but he has grown weary of celebrating the same holiday endlessly and is depressed about it. The only one who understands Jack's feelings is a lonely ragdoll named Sally. She overhears his singing monologue and feels she can relate to his situation.


title: Jack Skellington

text: One morning after the usual annual celebration, Jack enters a forest containing portals to other worlds themed around holidays. He discovers Christmas Town and decides that this new experience is what his life was missing. He makes preparations for his own Christmas celebration in Halloween Town and wants to impersonate Santa Claus in the real world. While his intentions are not malicious, Jack does not understand the true spirit of Christmas. Halloween Town plans to give the holidays a macabre makeover. Sally reveals to Jack a bad premonition, but Jack's basic nature is impulsiveness. He does not seem to register contradictory information. By the end of the film, he notices Sally and her determination to help him. He proves that love can be a part of his nature by calling Sally his "Dearest Friend", telling Sally that they were meant to be together, embracing his future with her and embracing her.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack follows the formula of a tragic hero because he begins the story at a lofty position. In spite of all his fame and talent, he yearns for another side of life. While a desire for completeness is not a flaw, his impulsiveness proves to be. He tends to be enthusiastic and inclusive, and his charisma is enough to sway every member of Halloween Town except Sally. His selfish decisions lead to the near destruction of Christmas and himself. The strength of Jack's character is demonstrated by his will to correct his own mistakes.


title: Jack Skellington

text: The official film soundtrack CD contains an epilogue not in the film, stating that "many years later" Santa returned to Halloween Town to visit Jack, where he discovered that Jack had "four or five skeleton children at hand" who play together in a xylophone band.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack Skellington has been shown to have an extreme hatred for Oogie Boogie as was proven when he spoke of this plan to Lock, Shock, and Barrel, stating to "leave that no account Oogie Boogie out of this!" He later finds out that Santa Claus and Sally have been kidnapped by the Boogie Man and are in his underground lair. While trying to save his friends, Jack manages to destroy Oogie and save Christmas.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Tired of using the same old themes over and over on Halloween, Jack Skellington goes to Doctor Finkelstein, who gives him the Soul Robber, an invention that changes shape. Jack decided to leave Halloween Town to get new ideas for Halloween frights. When Jack comes back to town, he finds that Oogie Boogie has been resurrected. Now Jack has to set things right again. Jack dances, fights and sings in this game to attack Oogie Boogie's minions. Jack is portrayed as inept to some degree in this game.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack Skellington features in the Nightmare Before Christmas downloadable expansion pack which includes Jack Skellington, Sally, Oogie-Boogie, Dr. Finklestein, and the Mayor as in-game playable costumes. The downloadable content can be bought from console stores (e.g. the PlayStation Store). The package included the costumes of which some could be found in the downloaded level. Unlike the worlds originally in the game which all had 3 chapters, the Nightmare Before Christmas world only had 1 chapter called 'Halloween Graveyard'.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack Skellington appears in four installments of the "Kingdom Hearts" video game series. He inhabits the world of Halloween Town, where the evil Heartless threatens its denizens. The games' main protagonists, Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy, befriend Jack and together they battle the Heartless, and also Oogie Boogie. In combat, Jack uses some of his scary powers with demonstrations of some magic, making him a formidable sorcerer.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Chris Sarandon reprises his role for the English version, and Masachika Ichimura provides Jack's Japanese voice.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack Skellington introduces himself to Sora, Goofy, and Donald Duck as the ruler of Halloween Town. Jack plans to use the heart that Finklestein created to control the seemingly docile Heartless to make a festival called "Heartless Halloween" so that Halloween can be frightening, but the idea fails when not only the first experiment cause the Heartless to go berserk, but Oogie Boogie steals the finished heart, and plans to use it to take over Halloween Town. At Oogie's manor, Jack, Sora, and the gang confront him. After Oogie is defeated, Jack finds out that Oogie uses dark orbs as his source of life, which Oogie combines himself with his manor to become a giant boss. Once the gang defeats Oogie once again, and his manor crumbles, revealing Halloween Town's keyhole. Jack is considerably shorter in this game than as he appeared in the movie, though he is still rather tall when compared to the game's main protagonists.


title: Jack Skellington

text: "Created" from Sora's memories of Halloween Town, when Jack Skellington wanted to ask Doctor Finkelstein what happened when he sniffs the potion that can bring "true memories", Heartless appeared. When Jack Skellington had found out that Oogie Boogie had stolen Doc's potion, he must stop him before Oogie drinks the whole potion. They fail to reach him before he does, but they defeat him, as Oogie becomes overwhelmed with fear as a side effect of the potion. Sora becomes worried about what will happen when he discovers his true memories, but Jack reassures him that fear is a sign of a strong heart.


title: Jack Skellington

text: In this game, Roxas arrives at Halloween Town while Jack is in the middle of brainstorming for Halloween. Jack is having trouble with thinking of things but gets inspiration when he sees Roxas leaving through a Dark Corridor. Time after time, Roxas' adventures through Halloween Town inspire Jack to create such things as balloons filled with spiders, exploding frost pumpkins, and Halloween lanterns. When Roxas is sent to find the source of a terrible drop in heartless population, he finds the town overrun with monsters called Tentaclaws. After seeing Roxas defeating the source of the Tentaclaws, the cannibalistic Leechgrave, Jack invents a terrifying scarecrowish version of Roxas as his centerpiece for that Halloween.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Following the film loosely to some degree, out of reference, Jack tries to take Santa Claus's place again. To that end, Jack asks Sora and the gang to help him be Santa's bodyguards. But after fighting the Heartless and Oogie Boogie, who has been resurrected by Maleficent, Santa explains to Jack that they each have a job to do with their respective holidays. Despite this, he begins to wear a Santa suit Sally sewed together for him. In the second trip to Halloween Town, Jack still wears the Santa suit, as he still longs to deliver Christmas presents and feels that it would be rude not to wear the suit Sally worked so hard on. Along with Sora and the gang, he helps defeat Doctor Finkelstein's experiment, who stole Christmas presents from Santa in search of a heart. As a reward for all his hard work and assistance, Santa brings Jack on a ride-along with him in his sleigh for a while. After Santa drops Jack off at Halloween Town, Jack learns the true meaning of Christmas by understanding the act of giving. He dances with Sally in the end, finally realizing all of the gifts she had given to him were all from the heart and wishes to give her something in return. She tells him that the nicest present she could ever ask for is just to be with Jack. Jack responds telling her that she does not even have to ask for that, meaning Jack feels the same way for her. During a cut scene in the end credits, he is shown to be wearing his original suit, suggesting he has taken Santa's previous advice to heart completely, and apparently begins presenting new ideas for next Halloween.


title: Jack Skellington

text: In the "Disney Infinity" video game series, Jack appears as part of the second wave of playable characters. He has the ability to scare enemies and throw exploding jack-o'-lanterns. If he rides Ghost Rider's motorcycle, his head will catch on fire, resembling


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack appears as a meetable character at several Walt Disney Parks and Resorts including Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World, and is located outside The Haunted Mansion in Frontierland. Disneyland during the holidays, Haunted Mansion is taken over by the cast of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and is turned into Haunted Mansion Holiday. Jack and other characters appear throughout the ride wearing Christmas attire. Additionally, Jack hosts the "Halloween Screams" and "Not So Spooky Spectacular!" fireworks shows, as well as the Frightfully Fun Parade. Chris Sarandon reprised the voice for the character in each instance.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Jack Skellington has been made into a Bendies figure, as well as various Funko Pop Vinyl figurines with different variants, such as a Day of the Dead variant. He appeared in the "Kingdom Hearts" action figure collections, and was also released in Japan's REVOLTECH Sci-fi line in 2010, along with the Japanese monsters, Gamera and Gyaos. Diamond Select Toys also made many action figures of Jack and other characters.


title: Jack Skellington

text: In 2017 a life-size Jack Skellington animatronic prop was released. The prop was six feet tall and sold exclusively at Spirit Halloween. But in 2019 the prop became a wholesale item.


title: Jack Skellington

text: In the "Disney Infinity" toys-to-life series, Jack appears as part of the second wave of playable figurines.


title: Jack Skellington

text: In 2019, a Lego minifigure of Jack Skellington was released as part of the Lego Minifigures Disney Series 2. A Lego Brickheadz figure of Jack was also released alongside a Brickheadz version of Sally.


title: Jack Skellington

text: Despite the film not being a part of the Disney Animated Canon, Jack has nonetheless become one of Disney's most popular characters. Jamie Frater adds, "Jack is perfectly realized as the 'town hero' who seeks more in his life (or death, as it may be), a place we all find ourselves time to time." UGO Networks listed Jack as one of their best heroes of all time.


title: Suspension bridge

text: A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Besides the bridge type most commonly called suspension bridges, covered in this article, there are other types of suspension bridges. The type covered here has cables suspended between towers, with vertical "suspender cables" that transfer the live and dead loads of the deck below, upon which traffic crosses. This arrangement allows the deck to be level or to arc upward for additional clearance. Like other suspension bridge types, this type often is constructed without the use of falsework.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The suspension cables must be anchored at each end of the bridge, since any load applied to the bridge is transformed into a tension in these main cables. The main cables continue beyond the pillars to deck-level supports, and further continue to connections with anchors in the ground. The roadway is supported by vertical suspender cables or rods, called hangers. In some circumstances, the towers may sit on a bluff or canyon edge where the road may proceed directly to the main span, otherwise the bridge will usually have two smaller spans, running between either pair of pillars and the highway, which may be supported by suspender cables or their own trusswork. In the latter case, there will be very little arc in the outboard main cables.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The earliest suspension bridges were ropes slung across a chasm, with a deck possibly at the same level or hung below the ropes such that the rope had a catenary shape.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The Tibetan siddha and bridge-builder Thangtong Gyalpo originated the use of iron chains in his version of simple suspension bridges. In 1433, Gyalpo built eight bridges in eastern Bhutan. The last surviving chain-linked bridge of Gyalpo's was the Thangtong Gyalpo Bridge in Duksum en route to Trashi Yangtse, which was finally washed away in 2004. Gyalpo's iron chain bridges did not include a suspended-deck bridge, which is the standard on all modern suspension bridges today. Instead, both the railing and the walking layer of Gyalpo's bridges used wires. The stress points that carried the screed were reinforced by the iron chains. Before the use of iron chains it is thought that Gyalpo used ropes from twisted willows or yak skins. He may have also used tightly bound cloth.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The first iron chain suspension bridge in the Western world was the Jacob's Creek Bridge (1801) in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, designed by inventor James Finley. Finley's bridge was the first to incorporate all of the necessary components of a modern suspension bridge, including a suspended deck which hung by trusses. Finley patented his design in 1808, and published it in the Philadelphia journal, The Port Folio, in 1810.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Early British chain bridges included the Dryburgh Abbey Bridge (1817) and 137 m Union Bridge (1820), with spans rapidly increasing to 176 m with the Menai Bridge (1826), "the first important modern suspension bridge". The first chain bridge on the German speaking territories was the Chain Bridge in Nuremberg. The Sagar Iron Suspension Bridge with a 200 feet span (also termed Beose Bridge) was constructed near Sagar, India during 1828-1830 by Duncan Presgrave, Mint and Assay Master.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The Clifton Suspension Bridge (designed in 1831, completed in 1864 with a 214 m central span), is similar to the Sagar bridge. It is one of the longest of the parabolic arc chain type. The current Marlow suspension bridge was designed by William Tierney Clark and was built between 1829 and 1832, replacing a wooden bridge further downstream which collapsed in 1828. It is the only suspension bridge across the non-tidal Thames. The Széchenyi Chain Bridge, (designed in 1840, opened in 1849), spanning the River Danube in Budapest, was also designed by William Clark and it is a larger-scale version of Marlow Bridge.


title: Suspension bridge

text: An interesting variation is Thornewill and Warham's Ferry Bridge in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire (1889), where the chains are not attached to abutments as is usual, but instead are attached to the main girders, which are thus in compression. Here, the chains are made from flat wrought iron plates, eight inches (203 mm) wide by an inch and a half (38 mm) thick, rivetted together.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The first wire-cable suspension bridge was the Spider Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill (1816), a modest and temporary footbridge built following the collapse of James Finley's nearby Chain Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill (1808). The footbridge's span was 124 m, although its deck was only 0.45 m wide.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Development of wire-cable suspension bridges dates to the temporary simple suspension bridge at Annonay built by Marc Seguin and his brothers in 1822. It spanned only 18 m. The first permanent wire cable suspension bridge was Guillaume Henri Dufour's Saint Antoine Bridge in Geneva of 1823, with two 40 m spans. The first with cables assembled in mid-air in the modern method was Joseph Chaley's Grand Pont Suspendu in Fribourg, in 1834.


title: Suspension bridge

text: In the United States, the first major wire-cable suspension bridge was the in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Designed by Charles Ellet Jr. and completed in 1842, it had a span of 109 m. Ellet's Niagara Falls suspension bridge (1847–48) was abandoned before completion. It was used as scaffolding for John A. Roebling's double decker railroad and carriage bridge (1855).


title: Suspension bridge

text: The Otto Beit Bridge (1938–1939) was the first modern suspension bridge outside the United States built with parallel wire cables.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Two towers/pillars, two suspension cables, four suspension cable anchors, multiple suspender cables, the bridge deck.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The main cables of a suspension bridge will form a catenary; the cables will instead form a parabola if they are assumed to have zero weight. One can see the shape from the constant increase of the gradient of the cable with linear (deck) distance, this increase in gradient at each connection with the deck providing a net upward support force. Combined with the relatively simple constraints placed upon the actual deck, that makes the suspension bridge much simpler to design and analyze than a cable-stayed bridge in which the deck is in compression.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Cable-stayed bridges and suspension bridges may appear to be similar, but are quite different in principle and in their construction.


title: Suspension bridge

text: In suspension bridges, large main cables (normally two) hang between the towers and are anchored at each end to the ground. The main cables, which are free to move on bearings in the towers, bear the load of the bridge deck. Before the deck is installed, the cables are under tension from their own weight. Along the main cables smaller cables or rods connect to the bridge deck, which is lifted in sections. As this is done, the tension in the cables increases, as it does with the live load of traffic crossing the bridge. The tension on the main cables is transferred to the ground at the anchorages and by downwards compression on the towers.


title: Suspension bridge

text: In cable-stayed bridges, the towers are the primary load-bearing structures that transmit the bridge loads to the ground. A cantilever approach is often used to support the bridge deck near the towers, but lengths further from them are supported by cables running directly to the towers. By design, all static horizontal forces of the cable-stayed bridge are balanced so that the supporting towers do not tend to tilt or slide and so must only resist horizontal forces from the live loads.


title: Suspension bridge

text: In an underspanned suspension bridge, also called under-deck cable-stayed bridge, the main cables hang entirely below the bridge deck, but are still anchored into the ground in a similar way to the conventional type. Very few bridges of this nature have been built, as the deck is inherently less stable than when suspended below the cables. Examples include the Pont des Bergues of 1834 designed by Guillaume Henri Dufour; James Smith's Micklewood Bridge; and a proposal by Robert Stevenson for a bridge over the River Almond near Edinburgh.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The timber structure essentially hides the cables; and from a quick view, it is not immediately apparent that it is even a suspension bridge.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The main suspension cables in older bridges were often made from a chain or linked bars, but modern bridge cables are made from multiple strands of wire. This not only adds strength but improves reliability (often called redundancy in engineering terms) because the failure of a few flawed strands in the hundreds used pose very little threat of failure, whereas a single bad link or eyebar can cause failure of an entire bridge. (The failure of a single eyebar was found to be the cause of the collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River.) Another reason is that as spans increased, engineers were unable to lift larger chains into position, whereas wire strand cables can be formulated one by one in mid-air from a temporary walkway.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Poured sockets are used to make a high strength, permanent cable termination. They are created by inserting the suspender wire rope (at the bridge deck supports) into the narrow end of a conical cavity which is oriented in-line with the intended direction of strain. The individual wires are splayed out inside the cone or 'capel', and the cone is then filled with molten lead-antimony-tin (Pb80Sb15Sn5) solder.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Most suspension bridges have open truss structures to support the roadbed, particularly owing to the unfavorable effects of using plate girders, discovered from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940) bridge collapse. In the 1960s, developments in bridge aerodynamics allowed the re-introduction of plate structures as shallow box girders, first seen on the Severn bridge, built 1961–1966. In the picture of the Yichang Bridge, note the very sharp entry edge and sloping undergirders in the suspension bridge shown. This enables this type of construction to be used without the danger of vortex shedding and consequent aeroelastic effects, such as those that destroyed the original Tacoma Narrows bridge.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Three kinds of forces operate on any bridge: the dead load, the live load, and the dynamic load. Dead load refers to the weight of the bridge itself. Like any other structure, a bridge has a tendency to collapse simply because of the gravitational forces acting on the materials of which the bridge is made. Live load refers to traffic that moves across the bridge as well as normal environmental factors such as changes in temperature, precipitation, and winds. Dynamic load refers to environmental factors that go beyond normal weather conditions, factors such as sudden gusts of wind and earthquakes. All three factors must be taken into consideration when building a bridge.


title: Suspension bridge

text: The principles of suspension used on a large scale also appear in contexts less dramatic than road or rail bridges. Light cable suspension may prove less expensive and seem more elegant for a cycle or footbridge than strong girder supports. An example of this is the Nescio Bridge in the Netherlands, and the Roebling designed 1904 Riegelsville suspension pedestrian bridge across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania. The longest pedestrian suspension bridge, which spans the River Paiva, Arouca Geopark, Portugal, opened in April 2021. The 516 metres bridge hangs 175 meters above the river.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Where such a bridge spans a gap between two buildings, there is no need to construct special towers, as the buildings can anchor the cables. Cable suspension may also be augmented by the inherent stiffness of a structure that has much in common with a tubular bridge.


title: Suspension bridge

text: Typical suspension bridges are constructed using a sequence generally described as follows. Depending on length and size, construction may take anywhere between a year and a half (construction on the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge took only 19 months) up to as long as a decade (the Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge's construction began in May 1986 and was opened in May 1998 – a total of twelve years).


title: Suspension bridge

text: Suspension bridges are typically ranked by the length of their main span. These are the ten bridges with the longest spans, followed by the length of the span and the year the bridge opened for traffic:


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Snakes and ladders is a board game for two or more players regarded today as a worldwide classic. The game originated in ancient India as "Moksha Patam", and was brought to the UK in the 1890s. It is played on a game board with numbered, gridded squares. A number of "ladders" and "snakes" are pictured on the board, each connecting two specific board squares. The object of the game is to navigate one's game piece, according to die rolls, from the start (bottom square) to the finish (top square), helped by climbing ladders but hindered by falling down snakes.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: The game is a simple race based on sheer luck, and it is popular with young children. The historic version had its roots in morality lessons, on which a player's progression up the board represented a life journey complicated by virtues (ladders) and vices (snakes). The game is also sold under other names such as Chutes and Ladders, Bible Ups and Downs, etc., some with a morality motif; a morality-themed Chutes and Ladders was published by the Milton Bradley Company starting from 1943.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: The size of the grid varies, but is most commonly 8×8, 10×10 or 12×12 squares. Boards have snakes and ladders starting and ending on different squares; both factors affect the duration of play. Each player is represented by a distinct game piece token. A single die is rolled to determine random movement of a player's token in the traditional form of play; two dice may be used for a shorter game.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Snakes and ladders originated as part of a family of Indian dice board games that included "gyan chauper" and pachisi (known in English as Ludo and "Parcheesi"). It made its way to England and was sold as "Snakes and Ladders", then the basic concept was introduced in the United States as "Chutes and Ladders".


title: Snakes and ladders

text: "Gyan chauper"/"jnan chauper" (game of wisdom), the version associated with the Jain philosophy, encompassed the concepts like "karma" and "Moksha".


title: Snakes and ladders

text: The game was popular in ancient India by the name "Moksha Patam". It was also associated with traditional Hindu philosophy contrasting "karma" and "kama", or destiny and desire. It emphasized destiny, as opposed to games such as pachisi, which focused on life as a mixture of skill (free will) and luck. The underlying ideals of the game inspired a version introduced in Victorian England in 1892. The game has also been interpreted and used as a tool for teaching the effects of good deeds versus bad. The board was covered with symbolic images, the top featuring gods, angels, and majestic beings, while the rest of the board was covered with pictures of animals, flowers and people. The ladders represented virtues such as generosity, faith, and humility, while the snakes represented vices such as lust, anger, murder, and theft. The morality lesson of the game was that a person can attain liberation (Moksha) through doing good, whereas by doing evil one will be reborn as lower forms of life. The number of ladders was less than the number of snakes as a reminder that a path of good is much more difficult to tread than a path of sins. Presumably, reaching the last square (number 100) represented the attainment of "Moksha" (spiritual liberation).


title: Snakes and ladders

text: A version popular in the Muslim world is known as "shatranj al-'urafa" and exists in various versions in India, Iran, and Turkey. In this version, based on sufi philosophy, the game represents the dervish's quest to leave behind the trappings of worldly life and achieve union with God.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: When the game was brought to England, the Indian virtues and vices were replaced by English ones in hopes of better reflecting Victorian doctrines of morality. Squares of Fulfilment, Grace and Success were accessible by ladders of Thrift, Penitence and Industry and snakes of Indulgence, Disobedience and Indolence caused one to end up in Illness, Disgrace and Poverty. While the Indian version of the game had snakes outnumbering ladders, the English counterpart was more forgiving as it contained equal numbers of each.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: The association of Britain's snakes and ladders with India and "gyan chauper" began with the returning of colonial families from India during the British Raj. The décor and art of the early English boards of the 20th century reflect this relationship. By the 1940s very few pictorial references to Indian culture remained, due to the economic demands of the war and the collapse of British rule in India. Although the game's sense of morality has lasted through the game's generations, the physical allusions to religious and philosophical thought in the game as presented in Indian models appear to have all but faded. There has even been evidence of a possible Buddhist version of the game existing in India during the Pala-Sena time period.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: In Andhra Pradesh, this game is popularly called "Vaikunthapali" or "Paramapada Sopana Patam" (the ladder to salvation) in Telugu. In Hindi, this game is called "Saanp aur Seedhi", "Saanp Seedhi" and "Mokshapat". In Tamil Nadu the game is called "Parama padam" and is often played by devotees of Hindu god Vishnu during the Vaikuntha Ekadashi festival in order to stay awake during the night. In Bengali-speaking regions, West Bengal in India and Bangladesh, it is known as "Shap Shiri" or "Shapludu" respectively.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: In the original game the squares of virtue are: "Faith" (12), "Reliability" (51), "Generosity" (57), "Knowledge" (76), and "Asceticism" (78). The squares of vice or evil are: "Disobedience" (41), "Vanity" (44), "Vulgarity" (49), "Theft" (52), "Lying" (58), "Drunkenness" (62), "Debt" (69), "Murder" (73), "Rage" (84), "Greed" (92), "Pride" (95), and "Lust" (99).


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Each player starts with a token on the starting square (usually the "1" grid square in the bottom left corner, or simply, at the edge of the board next to the "1" grid square). Players take turns rolling a single die to move their token by the number of squares indicated by the die rolled. Tokens follow a fixed route marked on the gameboard which usually follows a boustrophedon (ox-plow) track from the bottom to the top of the playing area, passing once through every square. If, on completion of a move, a player's token lands on the lower-numbered end of a "ladder", the player moves the token up to the ladder's higher-numbered square. If the player lands on the higher-numbered square of a "snake" (or chute), the player moves the token down to the snake's lower-numbered square.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: If a "6" is rolled, the player, after moving, immediately rolls again for another turn; otherwise play passes to the next player in turn. The player who is first to bring their token to the last square of the track is the winner.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Variants exists where a player must roll the exact number to reach the final square. Depending on the variation, if the die roll is too large, the token either remains in place or goes off the final square and back again. (For example, if a player requiring a "3" to win rolls a "5", the token moves forward three spaces, then back two spaces.) In certain circumstances (such as a player rolling a "5" when a "1" is required to win), a player can end up further away from the final square after their move, than before it.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: In the book "Winning Ways", the authors propose a variant which they call "Adders-and-Ladders" which, unlike the original game, involves skill. Instead of tokens for each player, there is a store of indistinguishable tokens shared by all players. The illustration has five tokens (and a five by five board). There is no die to roll; instead, the player chooses any token and moves it one to four spaces. Whoever moves the last token to the Home space (i.e. the last number) wins.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: The most widely known edition of snakes and ladders in the United States is "Chutes and Ladders", released by Milton Bradley in 1943. The playground setting replaced the snakes, which were disliked by children at the time. It is played on a 10x10 board, and players advance their pieces according to a spinner rather than a die. The theme of the board design is playground equipment, showing children climbing ladders and descending chutes.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: The artwork on the board teaches morality lessons: squares on the bottom of the ladders show a child doing a good or sensible deed, at the top of the ladder there is an image of the child enjoying the reward; squares at the top of the chutes show children engaging in mischievous or foolish behavior, on the bottom of the chute the image shows the children suffering the consequences.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Black children were depicted in the Milton Bradley game for the first time in 1974. There have been many pop culture versions of the game, with graphics featuring such children's television characters as "Dora the Explorer" and "Sesame Street". It has been marketed as "The Classic Up and Down Game for Preschoolers". In 1999, Hasbro released Chutes and Ladders for PCs.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: In Canada the game has been traditionally sold as "Snakes and Ladders" and produced by the Canada Games Company. Several Canada-specific versions have been produced over the years, including a version with toboggan runs instead of snakes.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: An early British version of the game depicts the path of a young boy and girl making their way through a cartoon railroad and train system.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: During the early 1990s in South Africa, "Chutes and Ladders" games made from cardboard were distributed on the back of egg boxes as part of a promotion.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Even though the concept of major virtues against vices and related Eastern spiritualism is not much emphasized in modern incarnations of the game, the central mechanism of snakes and ladders makes it an effective tool for teaching young children about various subjects. In two separate Indonesian schools, the implementation of the game as media in English lessons of fifth graders not only improved the students' vocabulary but also stimulated their interest and excitement about the learning process. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found that pre-schoolers from low income backgrounds who played an hour of numerical board games like snakes and ladders matched the performance of their middle-class counterparts by showing improvements in counting and recognizing number shapes. An eco-inspired version of the game was also used to teach students and teachers about climate change and environmental sustainability.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Meyer et al. (2020) explored on the basis of "Chutes and Ladders" with a free and adaptive game project. This refers on the one hand to systemic game pedagogy. The players and the educators develop the game from ground up and set the rules. The second element of the Monza project is mathematization. Over several years, teachers and learners abstract the game experiences into the language of mathematics.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: Any version of snakes and ladders can be represented exactly as an absorbing Markov chain, since from any square the odds of moving to any other square are fixed and independent of any previous game history. The Milton Bradley version of "Chutes and Ladders" has 100 squares, with 19 chutes and ladders. A player will need an average of 39.2 spins to move from the starting point, which is off the board, to square 100. A two-player game is expected to end in 47.76 moves with a 50.9% chance of winning for the first player. These calculations are based on a variant where throwing a six does not lead to an additional roll; and where the player must roll the exact number to reach square 100 and if they overshoot it their counter does not move.


title: Snakes and ladders

text: All games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner, and for every snake a ladder will compensate. But it's more than that; no mere carrot-and-stick affair; because implicit in the game is unchanging twoness of things, the duality of up against down, good against evil; the solid rationality of ladders balances the occult sinuosities of the serpent; in the opposition of staircase and cobra we can see, metaphorically, all conceivable oppositions, Alpha against Omega, father against mother.


title: Google Assistant

text: Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on mobile and home automation devices. Based on artificial intelligence, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike the company's previous virtual assistant, Google Now.


title: Google Assistant

text: Google Assistant debuted in May 2016 as part of Google's messaging app Allo, and its voice-activated speaker Google Home. After a period of exclusivity on the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, it was deployed on other Android devices starting in February 2017, including third-party smartphones and Android Wear (now Wear OS), and was released as a standalone app on the iOS operating system in May 2017. Alongside the announcement of a software development kit in April 2017, Assistant has been further extended to support a large variety of devices, including cars and third-party smart home appliances. The functionality of the Assistant can also be enhanced by third-party developers.


title: Google Assistant

text: Users primarily interact with the Google Assistant through natural voice, though keyboard input is also supported. Assistant is able to answer questions, schedule events and alarms, adjust hardware settings on the user's device, show information from the user's Google account, play games, and more. Google has also announced that Assistant will be able to identify objects and gather visual information through the device's camera, and support purchasing products and sending money.


title: Google Assistant

text: At CES 2018, the first Assistant-powered smart displays (smart speakers with video screens) were announced, with the first one being released in July 2018. In 2020, Google Assistant is already available on more than 1 billion devices. Google Assistant is available in more than 90 countries and in over 30 languages, and is used by more than 500 million users monthly.


title: Google Assistant

text: Google Assistant was unveiled during Google's developer conference on May 18, 2016, as part of the unveiling of the Google Home smart speaker and new messaging app Allo; Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained that the Assistant was designed to be a conversational and two-way experience, and "an ambient experience that extends across devices". Later that month, Google assigned Google Doodle leader Ryan Germick and hired former Pixar animator Emma Coats to develop "a little more of a personality".


title: Google Assistant

text: For system-level integration outside of the Allo app and Google Home, the Google Assistant was initially exclusive to the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. In February 2017, Google announced that it had begun to enable access to the Assistant on Android smartphones running Android Marshmallow or Nougat, beginning in select English-speaking markets. Android tablets did not receive the Assistant as part of this rollout. The Assistant is also integrated in Android Wear 2.0, and will be included in future versions of Android TV and Android Auto. In October 2017, the Google Pixelbook became the first laptop to include Google Assistant. Google Assistant later came to the Google Pixel Buds. In December 2017, Google announced that the Assistant would be released for phones running Android Lollipop through an update to Google Play Services, as well as tablets running 6.0 Marshmallow and 7.0 Nougat. In February 2019, Google reportedly began testing ads in Google Assistant results.


title: Google Assistant

text: On May 15, 2017, "Android Police" reported that the Google Assistant would be coming to the iOS operating system as a separate app. The information was confirmed two days later at Google's developer conference.


title: Google Assistant

text: In January 2018 at the Consumer Electronics Show, the first Assistant-powered "smart displays" were released. Smart displays were shown at the event from Lenovo, Sony, JBL and LG. These devices have support for Google Duo video calls, YouTube videos, Google Maps directions, a Google Calendar agenda, viewing of smart camera footage, in addition to services which work with Google Home devices.


title: Google Assistant

text: These devices are based on Android Things and Google-developed software. Google unveiled its own smart display, Google Home Hub in October 2018, and later Nest Hub Max, which utilizes a different system platform.


title: Google Assistant

text: In December 2016, Google launched "Actions on Google", a developer platform for the Google Assistant. Actions on Google allows 3rd party developers to build apps for Google Assistant. In March 2017, Google added new tools for developing on Actions on Google to support the creation of games for Google Assistant. Originally limited to the Google Home smart speaker, Actions on Google was made available to Android and iOS devices in May 2017, at which time Google also introduced an app directory or application directory for overview of compatible products and services. To incentivize developers to build Actions, Google announced a competition, in which first place won tickets to Google's 2018 developer conference, $10,000, and a walk-through of Google's campus, while second place and third place received $7,500 and $5,000, respectively, and a Google Home.


title: Google Assistant

text: In April 2017, a software development kit (SDK) was released, allowing third-party developers to build their own hardware that can run the Google Assistant. It has been integrated into Raspberry Pi, cars from Audi and Volvo, and smart home appliances, including fridges, washers, and ovens, from companies including iRobot, LG, General Electric, and D-Link. Google updated the SDK in December 2017 to add several features that only the Google Home smart speakers and Google Assistant smartphone apps had previously supported.


title: Google Assistant

text: On May 2, 2018, Google announced a new program that focuses on investing in the future of Google Assistant through early-stage startups. Their focus was to build an environment where developers could build richer experiences for their users. This includes startups that broaden Assistant's features, are building new hardware devices, or simply differentiating in different industries.


title: Google Assistant

text: Google Assistant launched using the voice of Kiki Baessell for the American female voice, the same actress for the Google Voice voicemail system since 2010. From 2016 until present day, the Assistant's default voice is portrayed by Antonia Flynn.


title: Google Assistant

text: On October 11, 2019, Google announced that Issa Rae had been added to Google Assistant as an optional voice, which could be enabled by the user by saying "Okay, Google, talk like Issa". Although, as of April 2022, Google Assistant response with "Sorry, that voice isn't available anymore, but you can try out another by asking me to change voices", if the command is given.


title: Google Assistant

text: Google Assistant, in the nature and manner of Google Now, can search the Internet, schedule events and alarms, adjust hardware settings on the user's device, and show information from the user's Google account. Unlike Google Now, however, the Assistant can engage in a two-way conversation, using Google's natural language processing algorithm. Search results are presented in a card format that users can tap to open the page. In February 2017, Google announced that users of Google Home would be able to shop entirely by voice for products through its Google Express shopping service, with products available from Whole Foods Market, Costco, Walgreens, PetSmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond at launch, and other retailers added in the following months as new partnerships were formed. Google Assistant can maintain a shopping list; this was previously done within the notetaking service Google Keep, but the feature was moved to Google Express and the Google Home app in April 2017, resulting in a severe loss of functionality.


title: Google Assistant

text: In May 2017, Google announced that the Assistant would support a keyboard for typed input and visual responses, support identifying objects and gather visual information through the device's camera, and support purchasing products and sending money. Through the use of the keyboard, users can see a history of queries made to the Google Assistant, and edit or delete previous inputs. The Assistant warns against deleting, however, due to its use of previous inputs to generate better answers in the future. In November 2017, it became possible to identify songs currently playing by asking the Assistant.


title: Google Assistant

text: The Google Assistant allows users to activate and modify vocal shortcut commands in order to perform actions on their device (both Android and iPad/iPhone) or configuring it as a hub for home automation.


title: Google Assistant

text: This feature of the speech recognition is available in English, among other languages. In July 2018, the Google Home version of Assistant gained support for multiple actions triggered by a single vocal shortcut command.


title: Google Assistant

text: At the annual I/O developers conference on May 8, 2018, Google's SEO announced the addition of six new voice options for the Google Assistant, one of which being John Legend's. This was made possible by WaveNet, a voice synthesizer developed by DeepMind, which significantly reduced the amount of audio samples that a voice actor was required to produce for creating a voice model. However, John Legend's Google Assistant cameo voice was discontinued on March 23, 2020.


title: Google Assistant

text: In August 2018, Google added bilingual capabilities to the Google Assistant for existing supported languages on devices. Recent reports say that it may support multilingual support by setting a third default language on Android Phone.


title: Google Assistant

text: In April 2019, the most popular audio games in the Assistant, Crystal Ball and Lucky Trivia, have had the biggest voice changes in the application's history. The voice in the assistant has been able to add expression to the games. For instance, in the Crystal Ball game, the voice would speak slow and soft during the intro and before the answer is revealed to make the game more exciting and in the Lucky Trivia game, the voice would become excitable like a game show host. In the British accent voice of Crystal Ball, the voice would say the word 'probably' in a downwards slide like she's not too sure. The games used the text to speech voice which makes the voice more robotic. In May 2019 however, it turned out to be a bug in the speech API that caused the games to lose the studio-quality voices. These audio games were fixed in May 2019.


title: Google Assistant

text: On December 12, 2019, Google rolled out its interpreter mode for iOS and Android Google Assistant smartphone apps. Interpreter mode allows Google Assistant to translate conversations in real time and was previously only available on Google Home smart speakers and displays. Google Assistant won the 2020 Webby Award for Best User Experience in the category: Apps, Mobile & Voice.


title: Google Assistant

text: On March 5, 2020, Google rolled out its article-reading feature on Google Assistant that read webpages aloud in 42 different languages.


title: Google Assistant

text: On October 15, 2020, Google announced a new ‘hum to search' function to allow users to find a song by simply humming, whistling or singing the song. According to Google, when a user hums a melody to search, the machine learning models will automatically convert the audio into a number-based sequence, which represents the song's melody.


title: Google Assistant

text: In May 2018, Google revealed Duplex, an extension of the Google Assistant that allows it to carry out natural conversations by mimicking human voice, in a manner not dissimilar to robocalling. The assistant can autonomously complete tasks such as calling a hair salon to book an appointment, scheduling a restaurant reservation, or calling businesses to verify holiday store hours. While Duplex can complete most of its tasks fully autonomously, it is able to recognize situations that it is unable to complete and can signal a human operator to finish the task. Duplex was created to speak in a more natural voice and language by incorporating speech disfluencies such as filler words like "hmm" and "uh" and using common phrases such as "mhm" and "gotcha", along with more human-like intonation and response latency. Duplex is currently in development and had a limited release in late 2018 for Google Pixel users. During the limited release, Pixel phone users in Atlanta, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco were only able to use Duplex to make restaurant reservations. As of October 2020, Google has expanded Duplex to businesses in eight countries.


title: Google Assistant

text: After the announcement, concerns were made over the ethical and societal questions that artificial intelligence technology such as Duplex raises. For instance, human operators may not notice that they are speaking with a digital robot when conversing with Duplex, which some critics view as unethical or deceitful. Concerns over privacy were also identified, as conversations with Duplex are recorded in order for the virtual assistant to analyze and respond. Privacy advocates have also raised concerns of how the millions of vocal samples gathered from consumers are fed back into the algorithms of virtual assistants, making these forms of AI smarter with each use. Though these features individualize the user experience, critics are unsure about the long term implications of giving "the company unprecedented access to human patterns and preferences that are crucial to the next phase of artificial intelligence".


title: Google Assistant

text: While transparency was referred to as a key part to the experience when the technology was revealed, Google later further clarified in a statement saying, "We are designing this feature with disclosure built-in, and we'll make sure the system is appropriately identified." Google further added that, in certain jurisdictions, the assistant would inform those on the other end of the phone that the call is being recorded.


title: Google Assistant

text: "PC World"'s Mark Hachman gave a favorable review of the Google Assistant, saying that it was a "step up on Cortana and Siri." Digital Trends called it "smarter than Google Now ever was".


title: Google Assistant

text: In July 2019 Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS published an article revealing that third-party contractors paid to transcribe audio clips collected by Google Assistant listened to sensitive information about users. Sensitive data collected from Google Home devices and Android phones included names, addresses, and other private conversations after mistaken hotword triggering, such as business calls or bedroom conversations. From more than 1000 recordings analyzed, 153 were recorded without 'Okay Google' command. Google officially acknowledged that 0.2% of recordings are being listened to by language experts to improve Google's services. On August 1, 2019, Germany's Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has initiated an administrative procedure to prohibit Google from carrying out corresponding evaluations by employees or third parties for the period of three months to provisionally protect the rights of privacy of data subjects for the time being, citing GDPR. A Google spokesperson stated that Google paused “language reviews” in all European countries while it investigated recent media leaks.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Viktor Axelsen (born 4 January 1994) is a Danish badminton player. He is the 2017 and 2022 World champion and the 2020 Olympic champion. He won the 2010 World Junior Championships, beating South Korea's Kang Ji-wook in the final to become the first ever European singles player to hold the title. Axelsen is a three-time European champion, having won the title in 2016, 2018 and 2022.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Axelsen was born in Odense, and at six years old, his father introduced him to badminton, playing the games at the Odense badminton club. He lived with his father after his parents divorced, and then lived alone in Copenhagen at the age of 17 and joined the national team. His father Henrik Axelsen ran a small advertising agency for a number of years, but now works full time as a manager for his son, and his mother Gitte Lundager has a shop in central Odense with a hairdressing salon, cosmetics and fashion clothing. He was named as the 2004 Player of the Year by Odense badminton club.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Axelsen's achievements begin when he won the National junior event in the boys' singles and doubles in his age group in 2006 and 2008. He later emerged victorious at the 2009 German Junior and also at the European U17 Championships. He made his debut in the senior international tournament at the 2009 Denmark Open playing in the men's doubles event with Steffen Rasmussen.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In January 2010, Axelsen who played from the qualification round, manage to reach the finals at the Swedish International tournament, and finished as the runner-up after losing to Indra Bagus Ade Chandra in straight games 15–21, 12–21. He competed at the World Junior Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, claimed the boys' singles title by defeating the No.1 seed, China's Huang Yuxiang in the quarter-finals, India's B. Sai Praneeth in the semis and Kang Ji-wook of Korea in the final. In October, he claimed his first international senior title at the age of just sixteen, winning the Cyprus International. A few weeks later he entered his first Super Series event in singles, the 2010 Denmark Open; making it through the qualifying stages before losing out to compatriot and eventual winner Jan Ø. Jørgensen in the second round.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In 2011, Axelsen secured gold at the European Junior Championships, defeating teammate Rasmus Fladberg 21–8, 17–21, 21–13 in the final. He took a silver medal at the 2011 BWF World Junior Championships, losing the title to Malaysia's Zulfadli Zulkiffli, coming in second place.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In early 2012, Axelsen moved to Valby, in Copenhagen, and started training at Brøndby elite center. Axelsen finished runner-up at the French Open in Paris, losing in the final to Liew Daren 18–21, 17–21. He also won a bronze medal at the 2012 European Championships, losing the semi-final in three games to Sweden's Henri Hurskainen 21–18, 18–21, 17–21.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In 2014, Axelsen won his first Grand Prix title at the Swiss Open, beating China's Tian Houwei in the final 21–7, 16–21, 25–23. Axelsen won a bronze medal at the 2014 BWF World Championships and also a bronze medal again at the 2014 European Championships.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In 2015, Axelsen finished runners-up at the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold, and three Super Series events: India Open, Australian Open, and Japan Open. He qualified to compete at the Super Series Finals held in Dubai, and again finished as the runner-up. Axelsen featured in Denmark's winning team at the European Mixed Team Championships in Leuven, Belgium. At the Sudirman Cup, the team finished in the quarter finals lost 2–3 to Japanese team, where he played in the second matches. He ended the 2015 season ranked as world number 6.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In 2016, Axelsen earned his first European crown in May 2016, beating compatriot and defending champion Jan Ø. Jørgensen with 21–11, 21–16 in the final of the 25th edition of the European Championships, the first in France at La Roche-sur-Yon. He was also part of the historic Danish team winning the first ever Thomas Cup title in 2016. Axelsen won five of his six played singles matches in the team tournament, including the match against Indonesia's experienced player Tommy Sugiarto in the final (21–17, 21–18) setting up a dramatic and historic 3–2 victory for Denmark over Indonesia. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, he won the bronze medal by beating Lin Dan from China 21–15, 12–21, 21–17.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In 2017, Axelsen won the World Championships in Glasgow in straight games against Lin Dan (22–20, 21–16) and became the third Danish player to ever become a world champion (Peter Rasmussen 1997 in Glasgow & Flemming Delfs 1977 in Sweden). Axelsen, with a record of 4–3, is the only top twenty player to hold a winning record against Lin Dan, head-to-head.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Axelsen followed up his victory in Glasgow by winning the finals of the Japan Open tournament in Tokyo over Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in three sets on 23 September, propelling him to the top of the BWF World Rankings.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In 2018, Axelsen participated in the European Men's and Women's Team Badminton Championships and got a gold after suffering from a foot injury. He represented Denmark in the 2018 Thomas & Uber Cup. In the group stage, he defeated Vladimir Malkov from Russia and from Algeria. In the group stage match against Lee Chong Wei, he lost by two straight games 9–21, 19–21. In the quarter-finals match against South Korea, he defeated Son Wan-ho, but he lost to the favorite and former world no. 2, Kento Momota in semi-finals. Denmark was then eliminated in semi-finals and failed to defend the title in the 2016 event. In August, Axelsen was unable to defend his world title where he was defeated by two-time World Champion and reigning Olympic Champion Chen Long in the quarter-finals.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Axelsen started the season by competing in the Indonesia Masters. He finished as the semi-finalist after losing to home player the seventh seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in two straight games. In February, he managed to defend his title in the Barcelona Spain Masters after beating the Thai youngster Kunlavut Vitidsarn in straight games 21–16, 21–13. In March, he won the All England Open, making history as the first European and Dane to lift the men's singles trophy since 1999.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Axelsen participated at the European Mixed Team Championships in Finland, and helped the team to win the gold medal. In March, Axelsen entered the All England Open as the defending champion. He reached the final, but lost to 6th seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in a grueling 3-game match (29–30, 22–20, 9–21). He then took part at the Kyiv European Championships, advanced to the final, but the organizers decided to cancel the finals, since Axelsen tested positive for COVID-19. Consequently, he was barred from playing the final match with his compatriot Anders Antonsen and was awarded a silver medal. He won the gold medal in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, beating the defending champion Chen Long in straight games in the final and without dropping a single game in the entire tournament.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In October, he won the Denmark Open title, defeating the top seed and world no.1 Kento Momota in a thrilling final match in three games. The match lasted 93 minutes. This was Axelsen's only second ever victory over Momota in their sixteen encounters. He then won his second super 1000 title of the year at the Indonesian Open by beating Singapore's Loh Kean Yew. For his achievements, Axelsen regain the number 1 spot at the BWF World ranking and have been named the 2020/2021 BWF Male Player of the Year. He then won the season ending of the 2021 BWF World Tour Finals, beating the current Eddy Chong Most Promising Player, Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the final in straight games, adding another victory to his undeniably successful year.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: The following month, Axelsen crashed out in the first round to the eventual World Champion Loh Kean Yew in the World Championships, losing 21–14, 9–21, 6–21 in 54 minutes.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Axelsen started the 2022 season as the world number one on the BWF World Ranking. He reached the semi-finals of the German Open 2022 where he narrowly lost in three games (13–21, 21–12, 20–22) to Indian player Lakshya Sen.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: On March 20, Axelsen won the All England Open in convincing fashion without dropping a single game in the entire tournament. He defeated Lakshya Sen in the finals (21–10, 21–15).


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: On 30 April, Axelsen won his third European Championship by defeating compatriot Anders Antonsen, 21–17, 21–15, in Madrid, Spain. He joined Flemming Delfs, Poul-Erik Høyer and Peter Gade as Danish three-time winners in men's singles. Despite the win, Axelsen was not satisfied with the win, saying that there were many silly mistakes from both players.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: On July 3, Axelsen won the Malaysia Open for the first time by defeating Kento Momota 21–4, 21–7 in the final, becoming the first Dane to win the event in 15 years. The next day, Axelsen withdrew from the 2022 Malaysia Masters, which was the next event on the tour. Axelsen then withdrew from the Singapore Open, taking a break in Singapore before moving on to the World Championships in August.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In August, Axelsen won the World Championships, defeating Thailand's three-time world junior champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the final, 21–5, 21–16. This was a second world championships title for Axelsen, adding on to the gold medal he won in 2017.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In mid October, Axelsen took part in his home event as the defending champion, the Denmark Open. In the quarterfinals, he lost to his training partner and former world champion Loh Kean Yew in a tame defeat, losing 17–21, 10–21 in just 30 minutes. Prior to this match, Axelsen had held a 39 match-winning streak, and his only loss in 2022 so far was to a narrow loss to Lakshya Sen in the German Open semi-final. After the match, Axelsen declared that he did not play up to his usual standard, going as far to describe his own play as "embarrassing", apologizing to the home crowd for his performance in the interview.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: However, he won the French Open title, a week after the Denmark Open. He defeated Rasmus Gemke in the final, in straight games 21-14 21-15, without dropping a game in the entire tournament. For his amazing performance in this year, only losing two completed matches, he was crowned as the BWF Male Player Of The Year, for the 2nd time after winning it last year.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In addition to his native Danish, Axelsen is also a fluent speaker of English and Mandarin, giving himself a Chinese name of 安賽龍.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: In August 2021 Axelson decided to leave the Danish national team in Copenhagen and move with his family from Denmark to Dubai. There he could train at the NAS Sports Complex (Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex). Axelsen himself stated several reasons for the move to Dubai; for instance shorter travel time to most events in Asia, which allows him more remaining time to rest or warm-up. Another reason was the health factor since he suffers from asthma and acute rhinitis. This makes it more comfortable in Asia than in Europe, especially Denmark, which tends to be cooler and where his allergy can be triggered faster by things such as flower pollen, dust, or animal dander. And the other reason is the family factor. Axelsen wants to have more time with his family.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Axelsen's girlfriend, Natalia Koch Rohde, gave birth to a baby girl named Vega Rohde Axelsen on 15 October 2020. On 7 October 2022 she gave birth to her second baby girl named Aya Rohde Axelson. Her father Henrik Rohde, who was headcoach of the winning Skovshoved team in the Danish league in 2017, since moving to Dubai, is also helping with the coaching of her husband Viktor Axelsen.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tour is divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300, and the BWF Tour Super 100.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: The BWF Superseries, which was launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007, was a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries levels were Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries consisted of twelve tournaments around the world that had been introduced since 2011. Successful players were invited to the Superseries Finals, which were held at the end of each year.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017.


title: Viktor Axelsen

text: Record against Year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi finalists, and Olympic quarter finalists. Accurate as of 8 November 2022.


title: Ponta Delgada

text: Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality ("concelho") and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,287 inhabitants, in an area of . There are 17,629 residents in the three central civil parishes that comprise the historical city: São Pedro, São Sebastião, and São José. Ponta Delgada became the region's administrative capital under the revised constitution of 1976; the judiciary and Catholic See remained in the historical capital of Angra do Heroísmo while the Legislative Assembly of the Azores was established in Horta.


title: Ponta Delgada

text: The origin of the placename Ponta Delgada (Portuguese for "delicate or thin point") was elaborated by the famous Portuguese chronicler, Father Gaspar Frutuoso, who wrote:


title: Ponta Delgada

text: In around 1450, Pêro de Teive established a small fishing village that eventually grew into the urban agglomeration in Santa Clara.


title: Ponta Delgada

text: Populated since 1444, the island of São Miguel was a vast territory, with small settlements scattered about, except for Vila Franca do Campo in the central-southern coast and the smaller community of Ponta Delgada. Villa Franca had for many years been the center of the island economically and socially and the seat of the local government, but many nobles and landed gentry despised its subordinate status to the government in that town (originating many conflicts between these inhabitants and administrators in the southern coast). The nobles in Ponta Delgada sent a secret contingent, headed by Fernão Jorge Velho, to meet with King Manuel in Lisbon to petition that the community be emancipated. In Abrantes, King Manuel conferred a foral on 29 May 1507, elevating the settlement to the status of the village ().


title: Ponta Delgada

text: Then, in 1522 an earthquake and landslide devastated the provincial capital, destroying many of the buildings and killing several people. Ponta Delgada became the only centre with an infrastructure to support the Azorean bureaucracy and supplant its important economic links. Quickly, its role changed, and eventually it was elevated to the status of city during the reign of King D. João III by decree, dated 2 April 1546.


title: Ponta Delgada

text: The naval Battle of Ponta Delgada (also known as the "Battle of São Miguel") took place on 26 July, 1582, off the coast, as part of the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis. An Anglo-French corsair expedition sailed against Spain to preserve Portuguese control of the Azores, which had aligned itself with the pretender António, Prior of Crato, thereby preventing Spanish control (it was the largest French force sent overseas before the age of Louis XIV).


title: Ponta Delgada

text: During the 19th century the municipality experienced its greatest boost of economic activity, with the funneling of citrus exports to United Kingdom and the growth of foreign-owned businesses in the historic center, many of them Jewish merchants after 1818. As with other centres across the archipelago, the town of Ponta Delgada experienced many of the trends common for the period, including the "greening" of the communities (with the construction of the gardens of António Borges, José do Canto, Jácome Correia and the Viscount of Porto Formoso, which would become part of the University of the Azores), the construction of many of the ornate homes/estates, the clearing of animals from urban spaces, the opening of newer, larger roadways, the moving of cemeteries to the periphery, and relocation of markets for fish, meat and fruits. Due to these changes, and growth of the mercantile class, Ponta Delgada became the third largest town in Portugal, in economic riches and the number of residents. The poet Bulhão Pato, writing of Ponta Delgada, was surprised by the extraordinary riches of the plantation owners, the "gentlemen farmers" that lived within the urbanized core: exporters of oranges and corn, bankers, investors, industrialists and shippers, all contributing to a privileged class of economic and social thinkers and philanthropists.