title: Australian English

text: Australian English, in common with British English, uses the word "mate" to mean "friend", as well as the word "bloody" as a mild expletive or intensifier. "Bloody" is taken to be milder in Australia than it is in the UK, where the word is considered profanity.


title: Australian English

text: Several words used by Australians were at one time used in the United Kingdom but have since fallen out of usage or changed in meaning there. For example, "creek" in Australia, as in North America, means a stream or small river, whereas in the UK it is typically a watercourse in a marshy area; "paddock" in Australia means field, whereas in the UK it means a small enclosure for livestock; "bush" or "scrub" in Australia, as in North America, means a wooded area, whereas in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs).


title: Australian English

text: Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English—mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as "kangaroo", "boomerang", "budgerigar", "wallaby" and so on have become international. Other examples are "cooee" and "hard yakka". The former is used as a high-pitched call, for attracting attention, (pronounced ) which travels long distances. "Cooee" is also a notional distance: "if he's within cooee, we'll spot him". "Hard yakka" means "hard work" and is derived from "yakka", from the Jagera/Yagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region. Also of Aboriginal origin is the word "bung", from the Sydney pidgin English (and ultimately from the Sydney Aboriginal language), meaning "dead", with some extension to "broken" or "useless". Many towns or suburbs of Australia have also been influenced or named after Aboriginal words. The best-known example is the capital, Canberra, named after a local Ngunnawal language word meaning "meeting place".


title: Australian English

text: Litotes, such as "not bad", "not much" and "you're not wrong", are also used. Diminutives and hypocorisms are common and are often used to indicate familiarity. Some common examples are "arvo" (afternoon), "barbie" (barbecue), "smoko" (cigarette break), "Aussie" (Australian) and "Straya" (Australia). This may also be done with people's names to create nicknames (other English speaking countries create similar diminutives). For example, "Gazza" from Gary, or "Smitty" from John Smith. The use of the suffix "-o" originates in , which is both a postclitic and a suffix with much the same meaning as in Australian English.


title: Australian English

text: In informal speech, incomplete comparisons are sometimes used, such as "sweet as" (as in "That car is sweet as."). "Full", "fully" or "heaps" may precede a word to act as an intensifier (as in "The waves at the beach were heaps good."). This was more common in regional Australia and South Australia but has been in common usage in urban Australia for decades. The suffix "-ly" is sometimes omitted in broader Australian English. For instance, "really good" can become "real good".


title: Australian English

text: Australia's switch to the metric system in the 1970s changed most of the country's vocabulary of measurement from imperial to metric measures. Since the switch to metric, heights of individuals are listed in centimetres on official documents and distances by road on signs are listed in terms of kilometres and metres.


title: Australian English

text: Where British and American English vocabulary differs, sometimes Australian English shares a usage with one of those varieties, as with petrol (AmE: "gasoline") and mobile phone (AmE: "cellular phone") which are shared with British English, or truck (BrE: "lorry") and eggplant (BrE: "aubergine") which are shared with American English.


title: Australian English

text: In other circumstances, Australian English sometimes favours a usage which is different from both British and American English as with:


title: Australian English

text: Differences exist between Australian English and other varieties of English, where different terms can be used for the same subject or the same term can be ascribed different meanings. Non-exhaustive examples of terminology associated with food, transport and clothing is used below to demonstrate the variations which exist between Australian English and other varieties:


title: Australian English

text: There also exist words which in Australian English are ascribed different meanings from those ascribed in other varieties of English, for instance:


title: Australian English

text: In addition to the large number of uniquely Australian idioms in common use, there are instances of idioms taking different forms in Australian English than in other varieties, for instance:


title: Australian English

text: There are extensive terms used in other varieties of English which are not widely used in Australian English. These terms usually do not result in Australian English speakers failing to comprehend speakers of other varieties of English, as Australian English speakers will often be familiar with such terms through exposure to media or may ascertain the meaning using context.


title: Australian English

text: Non-exhaustive selections of British English and American English terms not commonly used in Australian English together with their definitions or Australian English equivalents are found in the collapsible table below:


title: Australian English

text: The general rules of English Grammar which apply to Australian English are described at English grammar. Grammatical differences between varieties of English are minor relative to differences in phonology and vocabulary and do not generally affect intelligibility. Examples of grammatical differences between Australian English and other varieties include:


title: Australian English

text: As in all English-speaking countries, there is no central authority that prescribes official usage with respect to matters of spelling, grammar, punctuation or style.


title: Australian English

text: There are several dictionaries of Australian English which adopt a descriptive approach. The "Macquarie Dictionary" is most commonly used by universities, governments and courts as the standard for Australian English spelling. The Australian Oxford Dictionary is another commonly-used dictionary of Australian English.


title: Australian English

text: Australian spelling is significantly closer to British than American spelling, as it did not adopt the systematic reforms promulgated in Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary. Notwithstanding, the Macquarie Dictionary often lists most American spellings as acceptable secondary variants.


title: Australian English

text: The minor systematic differences which occur between Australian and American spelling are summarised below:


title: Australian English

text: Other examples of individual words where the preferred spelling is listed by the "Macquarie Dictionary" as being different from current British spellings include "analog as opposed to "analogue, "guerilla" as opposed to "guerrilla", "verandah as opposed to "veranda, "burqa" as opposed to "burka", "pastie (noun) as opposed to "pasty, "neuron as opposed to "neurone, "hicup as opposed to "hicough, "annex as opposed to "annexe, "raccoon" as opposed to "racoon" etc. Unspaced forms such as "onto", "anytime", "alright" and "anymore" are also listed as being equally as acceptable as their spaced counterparts.


title: Australian English

text: There is variation between and within varieties of English in the treatment of -t and -ed endings for past tense verbs. The Macquarie Dictionary does not favour either, but it suggests that "leaped, "leaned or "learned (with -ed endings) are more common but "spelt and "burnt" (with -t endings) are more common.


title: Australian English

text: Different spellings have existed throughout Australia's history. What are today regarded as American spellings were popular in Australia throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the Victorian Department of Education endorsing them into the 1970s and "The Age" newspaper until the 1990s. This influence can be seen in the spelling of the Australian Labor Party and also in some place names such as Victor Harbor. The "Concise Oxford English Dictionary" has been attributed with re-establishing the dominance of the British spellings in the 1920s and 1930s. For a short time during the late 20th century, Harry Lindgren's 1969 spelling reform proposal ("Spelling Reform 1" or "SR1") gained some support in Australia and was adopted by the Australian Teachers' Federation.


title: Australian English

text: Prominent general style guides for Australian English include the "Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage", the "Australian Government Style Manual" (formerly the ""), the "Australian Handbook for Writers and Editors" and the "Complete Guide to English Usage for Australian Students".


title: Australian English

text: Both single and double quotation marks are in use, with single quotation marks preferred for use in the first instance, with double quotation marks reserved for quotes of speech within speech. Logical (as opposed to typesetter's) punctuation is preferred for punctuation marks at the end of quotations. For instance, "Sam said he 'wasn't happy when Jane told David to "go away"'." is used in preference to "Sam said he "wasn't happy when Jane told David to 'go away.'""


title: Australian English

text: The DD/MM/YYYY date format is followed and the 12-hour clock is generally used in everyday life (as opposed to service, police, and airline applications).


title: Australian English

text: With the exception of screen sizes, metric system units are used in everyday life, having supplanted imperial units upon the country's switch to the metric system in the 1970s.


title: Australian English

text: In betting, decimal odds are used in favour of fractional odds, used in the United Kingdom, or moneyline odds, used in the United States.


title: Australian English

text: There are two major English language keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout. Keyboards and keyboard software for the Australian market universally uses the US keyboard layout, which lacks the pound sterling, euro and negation symbols and uses a different layout for punctuation symbols than the UK keyboard layout.


title: Púca

text: The púca (Irish for "spirit/ghost"; plural púcaí), puca (Old English for "goblin"; plural pucel) pwca, pooka, phouka, puck is a creature of Celtic and Germanic folklore. Considered to be bringers both of good and bad fortune, they could help or hinder rural and marine communities. Púcaí can have dark or white fur or hair. The creatures were said to be shape-changers, which could take the appearance of horses, goats, cats, dogs, and hares. They may also take a human form, which includes various animal features, such as ears or a tail.


title: Púca

text: The origin of the name is unknown, with some theorising that it originated in Germanic language before being introduced to Celtic culture, and others believing the opposite. The earliest attestation of the word is in the Old English language, where it appears to have been in use as early as the 8th century, based on place name evidence. Since it is a 'cultural' rather than a practical word that might be used in trading, it is thought to reflect greater cultural contact between Celtic and Germanic cultures in the early medieval period than had been thought.


title: Púca

text: The "púca" has counterparts throughout the Celtic and Germanic cultures of Northwest Europe. For instance, in Scandinavian languages we find, according to the OED, "Old Icelandic "púki" mischievous demon, the Devil, Faroese "púki", Norwegian (originally and chiefly regional) "puke" devil, evil spirit, mischievous person, Old Swedish "puke" devil, evil spirit, Swedish (now chiefly regional) "puke" evil spirit, devil, goblin), Old Danish "puge" evil spirit". In Welsh mythology it is named the pwca and in Cornish the "Bucca" (thus being related in etymology and milieu to the bugaboo). In the Channel Islands, the pouque were said to be fairies who lived near ancient stones; in Norman French of the Islands (e.g. Jèrriais), a cromlech, or prehistoric tomb, is referred to as a "pouquelée" or "pouquelay(e)"; "poulpiquet" and "polpegan" are corresponding terms in Brittany.


title: Púca

text: The púca may be regarded as being either menacing or beneficial. Fairy mythologist Thomas Keightley said "notions respecting it are very vague", and in a brief description gives an account collected by Croker from a boy living near Killarney that "old people used to say that the Pookas were very numerous ... long ago ... , were wicked-minded, black-looking, bad things ... that would come in the form of wild colts, with chains hanging about them", and that did much to harm unwary travellers. Also, little bad boys and girls were warned not to eat overripe blackberries, because this was a sign that the pooka has entered them.


title: Púca

text: One theme of the púca's folklore is their proclivity for mischief. They are commonly said to entice humans to take a ride on their back, giving the rider a wild and terrifying journey before dropping the unlucky person back at the place they were taken from. This lore bears similarities to other Irish folk creatures, such as the daoine maithe" (good people) or the "slua si" (fairy host)", said to target humans on the road or along their regular "passes". These human encounters of the púca tend to occur in rural, isolated places, far from settlements or homes"."


title: Púca

text: While púca stories can be found across northern Europe, Irish tales specify a protective measure for encountering a púca. It is said that the rider may be able to take control of the púca by wearing sharp spurs, using those to prevent being taken or to steer the creature if already on its back.


title: Púca

text: A translation of an Irish púca story, "An Buachaill Bó agus an Púca", told by storyteller Seán Ó Cróinín, describes this method of control of the púca as done by a young boy who had been the creature's target once before:


title: Púca

text: "I have spurs," said the farmer. "Put them on you tonight and if he brings you give him the spurs!" And this the lad did. The thing threw him from its back and the lad got back early enough. Within a week the (pooka) was before him again after housing the cows.


title: Púca

text: The protective power of the "sharp things", as they are always referred to by the pooka in the tales, may stem from the Irish belief that "cold iron" has the ability to ward off the supernatural.


title: Púca

text: In contrast, the púca is represented as being helpful to farmers by Lady Wilde, who relates the following tale. A farmer's son named Padraig one day noticed the invisible presence of the púca brushing by, and called out to him, offering a coat. The púca appeared in the guise of a young bull, and told him to come to the old mill at night. From that time onward, the púca came secretly at night and performed all the work of milling the sacks of corn into flour. Padraig fell asleep the first time, but later concealed himself in a chest to catch sight of them, and later made a present of a fine silk suit. This unexpectedly caused the púca to go off to "see a little of the world" and cease its work. But by then the farmer's wealth allowed him to retire and give his son an education. Later, at Padraig's wedding, the púca left a gift of a golden cup filled with drink that evidently ensured their happiness.


title: Púca

text: Another example of the púca as a benevolent or protective entity comes in tales where the creature intervenes before a terrible accident or before the person is about to happen upon a malevolent fairy or spirit. In several of the regional variants of the stories where the púca is acting as a guardian, the púca identifies itself to the bewildered human. This is particularly noteworthy as it is in contrast to the lore of many other folkloric beings, who guard their identities or names from humans.


title: Púca

text: There are stories of some púcaí being blood-thirsty and vampire-like creatures. Other stories even say some are man-eating beings, hunting down, killing, and eating their victims.


title: Púca

text: According to legend, the púca is a deft shapeshifter, capable of assuming a variety of terrifying or pleasing forms. It can take a human form, but will often have animal features, such as ears or a tail. As an animal, the púca will most commonly appear as a horse, cat, rabbit, raven, fox, wolf, goat, goblin, or dog. No matter what shape the púca takes, its fur is almost always dark. It most commonly takes the form of a sleek black horse with a flowing mane and luminescent golden eyes. (The Manx "glashtyn" also takes on human form, but he usually betrays his horse's ears and is analogous to the each uisce.)


title: Púca

text: If a human is enticed onto a púca's back, it has been known to give them a wild ride; however, unlike a kelpie, which will take its rider and dive into the nearest stream or lake to drown and devour them, the púca will do its rider no real harm. However, according to some folklorists, the only man ever to ride the púca was Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, by using a special bridle incorporating three hairs of the púca's tail. The púca has the power of human speech, and has been known to give advice and lead people away from harm. Though the púca enjoys confusing and often terrifying humans, it is considered to be benevolent.


title: Púca

text: Certain agricultural traditions surround the púca. It is a creature associated with Samhain, a Goidelic harvest festival, when the last of the crops are brought in. Anything remaining in the fields is considered "puka", or fairy-blasted, and hence inedible. In some locales, reapers leave a small share of the crop, the "púca's share", to placate the hungry creature. Nonetheless, 1 November is the púca's day, and the one day of the year when it can be expected to behave civilly.


title: Púca

text: At the beginning of November, the púca was known—in some locales—to either defecate or spit on the wild fruits rendering them inedible and unsafe thenceforth.


title: Púca

text: In some regions, the púca is spoken of with considerably more respect than fear; if treated with deference, it may actually be beneficial to those who encounter it. The púca is a creature of the mountains and hills, and in those regions there are stories of it appearing on November Day and providing prophecies and warnings to those who consult it.


title: Púca

text: In some parts of County Down, the púca is manifested as a short, disfigured goblin who demands a share of the harvest; in County Laois, it appears as a monstrous bogeyman, while in Waterford and Wexford the púca appears as an eagle with a huge wingspan and in Roscommon as a black goat.


title: Púca

text: Shakespeare's 1595 play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" features the character "Robin Goodfellow," who is also called "sweet Puck," a version of the púca.


title: Púca

text: In Sheridan Le Fanu's 1861 novel "Ultor De Lacey: A Legend of Cappercullen", the children encounter a Phooka's tower. The title character in his short story "The White Cat of Drumgunniol" (1870) is a phooka in the shape of a cat.


title: Púca

text: One of the primary characters of Flann O'Brien's 1939 debut novel "At Swim-Two-Birds" is the Pooka MacPhellimey, who can change his appearance by smoking from a magic pipe.


title: Púca

text: The title character in the 1944 stage play "Harvey", later adapted into a 1950 film starring James Stewart, is a six-foot, three-and-a-half-inch (1.92 m) tall rabbit, who is referred to as a "pooka".


title: Púca

text: A pooka appears in the 1959 Disney film "Darby O'Gill and the Little People", in the form of a horse.


title: Púca

text: Piers Anthony's novel "" (1984) features Pook the Pooka, a ghost horse with chains, as the mount of Jordan the Barbarian. Pook's daughter Peek shows up in subsequent books.


title: Púca

text: "The Grey Horse" (1987) by R. A. MacAvoy, an Irish fantasy set in the time of Parnell, features a "púca" the form of a Connemara pony.


title: Púca

text: In "War for the Oaks" (1987), an urban fantasy novel by Emma Bull, a phouka protects the human main character in a war between the faerie folk. He is depicted as a mischievous trickster character who can take the shape of a dog and a man.


title: Púca

text: Pookas appear in children's television programme "Knightmare" (1987–1994). They are presented as a threat, either malevolent or mindless, and appear as floating green entities with swivelling eyes and prominent cheeks. These pookas have plants growing from their head and generally appear in wild areas such as woodland or overgrown ruins.


title: Púca

text: In Peter S. Beagle's novel "Tamsin" (1999), the pooka appears as an untamed, untrustworthy being who deigns to assist the protagonist Jenny. As in folklore, this pooka is a shapeshifter who most often appears as a wild pony. In all his forms he is black with golden eyes.


title: Púca

text: In the "Merry Gentry" book series (2000–present) by Laurell K. Hamilton, one of the main characters, Doyle, owes part of his heritage to the phouka.


title: Púca

text: In "The Spiderwick Chronicles" (2003–2009), a children's fantasy book series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, a phooka is among the many faeries and fantastical creatures encountered by the Grace children. It is portrayed as a bizarre but harmless creature which talks in riddles and behaves in a similar manner to the Cheshire Cat from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".


title: Púca

text: Pooka (1992–2002) was the former songwriting duo of the British guitarists/vocalists Sharon Lewis and Natasha Jones. They took their name from the púca, a mythical Irish goblin with an uneven temper.


title: Púca

text: In the manga "Berserk" (1989–present) the fairy accompanying the main character is named "Puck". It is later revealed that he is a spirit of nature.


title: Púca

text: In the anime series "Sword Art Online" (2002–2008), pooka is one of the nine races that ALfheim Online's players are divided into.


title: Púca

text: In the manga and anime series , "Puck" is a summoned spirit companion of Emilia. They take the appearance of a grey and white cat but seems to shapeshift and have immense power when they want to use it.


title: Púca

text: In the American comic book series "Blue Monday" (1998–present), a pooka in the form of a large river otter named Seamus is the friend of the protagonist, Bleu Finnegan, living in Central California in the early 1990s. He is mostly there to cause mischief, but he is also suspected of being her protector. He is only visible to her and one other character, a recently-immigrated Irish teenager and best friend of Bleu named Clover Connelly, who refuses to acknowledge him in public.


title: Púca

text: In the "White Wolf Publishing" tabletop role playing game "" (1995), Pooka are one of the standard kiths, or option for playable character types, among several other creatures of Celtic and Gaelic folklore.


title: Púca

text: In the video game "" (2015), Phoocas are described as stronger versions of the in-game monsters, called Nekkers.


title: Púca

text: In the video game "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" (2020) in the "Wrath of the Druids" expansion, púca are portrayed as a type of werewolf with antlers.


title: Púca

text: In the video game "Etrian Odyssey IV" (2012), Pucas or "Pooca" would appear occasionally and would grant players bonuses and extra stat points for slaying them.


title: Púca

text: In the card game "Dominion" (2008), Pooka is a card that allows the player to sacrifice a treasure to draw 4 cards.


title: Púca

text: In the video game "Odin Sphere" (2007), Pookas are rabbit-like humanoid creatures who often serve as servants to humans, but have their own society and goals as well.


title: Púca

text: The December episode of the series "Into the Dark" is titled "Pooka!" (2018) and centers around the main character being taken on a terrifying psychological journey.


title: Púca

text: In the 2018 television series "Britannia", "Pwykka" is a demon of the Celtic underworld, taking the form of a serpent.


title: Púca

text: In the "Legends of Tomorrow" episode "Nip/Stuck" (2019), John Constantine saves an adolescent Púca from his ancestor in 55 BCE.


title: Púca

text: In "The Adventures of the Leafeans" (2020), a children's fantasy animated television series by Char Whaley, a phooka is among the many faeries and fantastical creatures encountered by the Merkles. It is portrayed as a bizarre, mischievous, but harmless anthro lynx/hyena-like creature which talks in riddles sometimes and behaves in a similar manner to the Scarecrow from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and Cheshire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland" and was voiced by Robert Carlyle.


title: Connor Jessup

text: Connor William Jessup (born June 23, 1994) is a Canadian actor, writer, and director. He is known for his roles as Ben Mason on the TNT science fiction television series "Falling Skies" (2011–2015), Taylor Blaine and Coy Henson in the ABC anthology series "American Crime" (2016–2017), and Tyler Locke in the Netflix series "Locke & Key" (2020–2022). He has also starred in feature films, most notably in the award-winning "Blackbird" (2012) and "Closet Monster" (2015).


title: Connor Jessup

text: Jessup began acting at the age of 11 as a child actor. After various early jobs, including a role in a stage adaptation of "The Full Monty", Jessup got a lead role in the children's television series "The Saddle Club", for which he is also credited with conceptualizing the plot of one episode. He served as executive producer for the independent film "Amy George", which played at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2011, Jessup was cast as a main character in the TNT science fiction series "Falling Skies". He starred on the show for five seasons.


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2012, Jessup starred in the Canadian independent film "Blackbird", in which he played a troubled teen falsely accused of planning a school shooting. Jessup's performance received positive reviews and the film won various awards, including the Best Canadian First Feature Film award at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. The film won three awards at the Atlantic Film Festival and won the Vancouver International Film Festival award for Best Canadian Feature Film. It also screened at the Cannes Film Festival.


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2015, Jessup also starred in the feature film "Closet Monster", which won the Best Canadian Film Award at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and screened at various film festivals around the world, before subsequently being released nationwide in July 2016.


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2016, Jessup starred in the Emmy-winning ABC series "American Crime" as Taylor Blaine. His performance was praised by critics. He returned for the third season as Coy Henson.


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2018, Jessup was cast as Tyler Locke, one of the main roles in the Netflix series "Locke & Key", an adaptation of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's popular comic series of the same name.


title: Connor Jessup

text: Jessup has stated in numerous interviews that his intention is to work in the film industry beyond acting, as a director and filmmaker. In an interview with the " Toronto Star", Jessup said that directing "is where my mind and heart [are] at the moment". In 2014, Jessup starred in the short film "Fragments", and in 2015, Jessup's short film "Boy," which he wrote and directed, and was funded by bravoFACT, premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2016, Jessup was included in "Filmmaker Magazine"s annual list of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film. His short film "Lira's Forest", which he wrote and directed, premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Jessup wants to expand this story with a feature film, "Simon's Forest".


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2017, it was announced that Jessup would be directing a documentary profile of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul for FilmStruck and The Criterion Collection. The film was released in the spring of 2018.


title: Connor Jessup

text: In 2019, he produced the omnibus film "30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing," which included short films by Ira Sachs, Catherine Breillat, Cindy Sherman, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Brady Corbet, Rithy Pahn, Lulu Wang and more. He contributed his own film to the program, "Night Flight", inspired by the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.


title: Connor Jessup

text: As a director, Jessup has expressed a particular fascination with Japanese film and culture and has stated in interviews that he is highly influenced by East Asian cinema, including directors Hirokazu Kore-eda, Edward Yang, Yasujirō Ozu, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He has also expressed admiration for directors Abbas Kiarostami, Andrew Haigh, and Ira Sachs.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Vampires (also known as John Carpenter's Vampires) is a 1998 American independent neo-Western action horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and starring James Woods. It was adapted from the novel "Vampire$" by John Steakley.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Woods stars as Jack Crow, the leader of a team of vampire hunters. After his parents were murdered by vampires, Crow was raised by the Catholic Church to become their "master slayer". The plot is centered on Crow's efforts to prevent a centuries-old cross from falling into the hands of Jan Valek (a reference to Valac, played by Thomas Ian Griffith), the first and most powerful of all vampires. The film also stars Daniel Baldwin as Tony Montoya, Crow's best friend and fellow hunter; Sheryl Lee as Katrina, a prostitute who has a psychic link to Valek after being bitten; Tim Guinee as Father Adam Guiteau; and Maximilian Schell as Cardinal Alba.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Jack Crow leads his team of Vatican-sponsored vampire hunters in a daylight raid on an abandoned house in New Mexico. Finding a 'nest' of vampires, the team subdue the creatures with gunfire, pikes, and wooden stakes, using a modified crossbow attached to a mechanical winch to pull them outside, where they are incinerated by sunlight. Despite disposing of nine 'goons', Jack is concerned about not having found their older, more powerful 'master'.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: While the team drunkenly celebrates with prostitutes at a local motel, the master vampire Valek arrives and bites one of the prostitutes, Katrina, initiating her transformation into a vampire. He swiftly murders the hunters, with only Crow and his trusted lieutenant Tony Montoya escaping alive with Katrina. Disturbed that Valek recognized him by name, Crow orders Montoya to lay low with Katrina, hoping to use her growing psychic link with Valek to track him down.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: After burying his team and burning down the motel, Crow reports to his superior Cardinal Alba, who confirms that Valek was a disgraced priest who led a rebellion against the church, leading to his execution and transformation into the first vampire. Valek has already killed another group of slayers in Germany, and Alba instructs Crow to form a new team, accompanied by archivist Father Adam Guiteau. Suspecting that his team was betrayed, Crow interrogates Guiteau and dispels his heroic notions of vampire hunting, showing him a map of vampire activity that indicates the vampires are searching the southwest for an unknown object.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Guarding Katrina at a hotel, Montoya explains the changes she is experiencing. Horrified, she attempts suicide and bites Montoya when he rescues her, which he hides from Crow and Guiteau when they arrive. Crow decides to pursue Valek without gathering a new team, and Katrina is linked with Valek when he questions and kills a priest. Sensing Guiteau is hiding something, Crow threatens him, recounting that he killed his own father for being bitten by a vampire and killing Jack's mother in front of him. Guiteau reveals that Valek is seeking an ancient relic, the "Black Cross" of Berziers, and Crow welcomes him to the team as his new slayer.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Using Katrina's psychic link, Jack, Montoya, and Guiteau learn that Valek has roused seven additional masters. They follow the vampires to a Spanish mission, where Valek has slaughtered the monks and seized the cross. Guiteau realizes that Valek plans to complete his own exorcism, making him immune to sunlight and virtually unstoppable. Searching a nearby abandoned town, they suspect at least thirty new goons have been transformed. Guiteau volunteers as 'bait' for the masters, allowing Jack to harpoon them and Montoya to drag them into sunlight. While they manage to kill most of his lieutenants, Valek and his undead army overwhelm them at sundown; Crow is captured, Guiteau takes cover, and Montoya and Katrina flee, only for her to fully transform and bite Montoya on the throat before joining Valek.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Cardinal Alba reveals himself as Valek’s ally; having grown to fear death, he has agreed to help Valek recreate the original ritual in exchange for becoming a vampire himself. The ritual requires the participation of a priest, and the blood and crucifixion of a "crusader" — Jack. Guiteau kills Alba before he can complete the ritual and holds off the vampire horde by threatening to kill himself and leave Valek without a priest. Montoya and Guiteau rescue Crow as the sun rises, and Crow confronts Valek, impaling him with the Berziers cross and destroying him in daylight.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Guiteau and Crow prepare to slay Montoya and Katrina, knowing their transformations are irreversible; however, to repay Montoya’s two days of loyalty after being bitten, Crow grants them a two-day head start. As Montoya and Katrina depart, Jack and Guiteau head off to kill the remaining vampires.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Largo Entertainment bought the rights to John Steakley's novel in 1992 and planned on turning the film into the studio's next big project. Although Carpenter, alongside Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, and Ron Underwood, had all been considered, Russell Mulcahy was the first to be the attached director. Dolph Lundgren had been cast in the lead role of Jack Crow, and it was reported that Willem Dafoe was being eyed for a secondary role, likely the role of antagonist vampire Valek. Many proposed drafts for the film existed, including one that took place entirely at The Vatican and featured a vampirized Pope as the villain, and another that took place in a distant high-tech future where vampires are commonplace and vampire hunters are as abundant as police officers. The film was slated for a Summer 1996 release date with a budget of $50–$60 million, but conflicts between Mulcahy and the studio forced him to leave the project before filming began, taking Lundgren with him. The two would immediately begin working on Silent Trigger, which borrowed elements from the unused scripts for Vampires.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Shortly after finishing work on "Escape from L.A.", John Carpenter was thinking about quitting filmmaking because "it stopped being fun". Largo Entertainment approached him with a project called "Vampires", an adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Steakley. They gave him two screenplays; one by Don Jakoby and one by Dan Mazur. Carpenter read both screenplays and the novel, and he saw the potential for a film he'd been interested in making. "I went into my office and thought, 'It's going to be set in the American southwest and it's a western – Howard Hawks.'" Carpenter had always wanted to make a film that experimented with mixing the horror and western genres, and felt Vampires was perfect for him. "The story is set up like a western. It's about killers for hire. They're a western cliché. In this movie they’re paid to kill vampires." In terms of tone and look, Carpenter felt that his film was "a little more like "The Wild Bunch" than Hawks in its style, but the feelings and the whole ending scene is a kind of replay on "Red River"."


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: The film was originally set to be made with a budget $60 million, but was slashed down to $20 million at the last minute. To accommodate the sudden budgetary concerns, he wrote his own screenplay, taking elements from the Jakoby and Mazur scripts, the book, and some of his own ideas, alongside writer and frequent collaborator Michael De Luca. For this film, Carpenter wanted to get away from the stereotype of gothic vampires as he said in an interview, "My vampires are savage creatures. There isn't a second of brooding loneliness in their existence. They're too busy ripping and tearing humans apart."


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Carpenter was looking for someone unique to play the character of Jack Crow and was actively avoiding "just another musclebound meathead", eventually settling for James Woods. He had considered Clint Eastwood, Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and R. Lee Ermey for the role, but all of those actors either declined the role or couldn't sign on due to scheduling conflicts. Ermey's casting was rejected by the studio, who believed he did not hold the star power to front a blockbuster. Carpenter cast James Woods as Jack Crow because he wanted "the vampire slayer to be as savage as the prey he’s after, a guy who's just as menacing as the vampires. James Woods is the kind of guy you'd believe could and would chew off the leg of a vampire." Woods was interested in doing the film because he had never been offered a horror film before and wanted to try something new. Contrary to his reputation, Carpenter didn't find the actor difficult to work with because "we had a deal. He would give me one take as it's written and I would let him improvise...Many of his improvisations were brilliant. When I needed him to be more focused and disciplined, I had the take from the script that was straighter."


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Alec Baldwin, an outspoken fan of Carpenter's work, had been cast to play Montoya but quickly dropped out and recommended the role to his brother, Daniel. Carpenter had not seen any of Daniel Baldwin's work and had the actor read for him. He had seen Sheryl Lee on "Twin Peaks" and cast her based on her work on the show. Carpenter's wife and the film's producer Sandy King cast Thomas Ian Griffith because she and the director wanted "someone who looks formidable, but is also alluring. There always has to be something alluring about the evil nature of the vampire." Dolph Lundgren was also approached about returning as Valek instead of Jack Crow, but he was not interested in playing the villain and declined.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Principal photography began during June 1997 in New Mexico and concluded on August 4, 1997. Midway through production, Carpenter left the film due to creative interference, and special make-up effects artist Greg Nicotero took over for a few days until Carpenter was persuaded back. In the credits, the film bears a 1997 copyright year rather than a 1998 copyright year, presumably because post-production work had been completed prior to 1998.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: The MPAA took issue with the film's over-the-top violence, threatening to give it an NC-17 rating unless some of the gore was cut. Ultimately, about 20 seconds of footage was cut from the film. King said, "We satisfied the ratings board by just cutting short of a few things that went into really gruesome stuff."


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: The film opened at #1 but dropped to #8 on its second week. The film grossed $20,308,772 dollars in the United States on a $20 million budget. Although worldwide numbers are not official, Carpenter stated the film was a massive success overseas, particularly in Japan, and pulled in well over its $20 million budget. It later went on to pull in a further $42 million on home video rental and purchase sales. "Vampires" was Carpenter's only financially successful film of the 90s, and to date it is the last financially successful film that John Carpenter has directed.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: The film was originally released to varied critical reviews, appearing on both best-of-the-year and worst-of-the-year lists. Positive reviews were based on the film's acting, direction, and visual style, while negative reviews felt the film lacked a coherent plot or likable characters. On Rotten Tomatoes "Vampires" holds a 42% rating based on 52 reviews. The site's consensus was: "Nothing but one showdown after another." On Metacritic the film has a score of 42% based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: In its positive reviews, Liam Lacey of "The Globe and Mail" called it "crude, rude, nasty fun". Robert Gonsalves of efilmcritic.com gave the film four out of five stars, calling Vampires "grungy, disreputable fun...a beautifully shot, yet nightmarishly haunting spaghetti western/horror." Dan Moore of "Tulsa News On 6" awarded the film with an A−, saying Vampires "has a distinct personality and entertaining style, one ripe to inspire future generations" and "could very well be Carpenter's next masterpiece". Sean Axmaker of Stream On Demand gave the film 3.5 stars out of four, calling it "Carpenter in his prime form", giving particular points to its world building and acting. Negative critics such as "The New York Times"' Lawrence Van Gelder said it was "ridiculous without being awful enough to be hilarious". Michael Dequina of The Movie Report was also unimpressed, giving the film 1.5 stars out of five, saying "there's no real plot" further believing the film featured "some of the most unlikable characters in recent memory". Susan Stark of "Detroit News" called the film "misogynistic and disgusting", questioning if Carpenter hated women, giving the film one star out of four. Paul Tatara of CNN gave the film a particularly hostile review, lambasting Carpenter as a filmmaker and finishing his review by saying "as foul as it is, I'd argue that the main reason kids shouldn't see 'John Carpenter's Vampires' is because it might stunt their emotional and creative development."


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: Other critics saw the film as mediocre at best. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, and noted that it "has a certain mordant humor and charm", but was ultimately "not scary, and the plot is just one gory showdown after another." John C. Puccio of Movie Metropolis was also lukewarm about the film and gave it five out of ten stars, describing the film as "little more than an excuse to watch people kill each other in the most brutal possible ways" but acknowledged that the film was well shot, directed, and acted, and that the film had an interesting visual style. Marc Savlov of the "Austin Chronicle" gave the film three stars out of five, stating he enjoyed the film's cinematography, which he described as "a comic book brought to life", but further noted that the film takes itself far too seriously and suggests the film may have worked better as a dark comedy. James Berardinelli gave the film two and a half stars out of four, stating "Vampires is decent enough, but it's unlikely anybody will remember this film in the following years, or perhaps even in following weeks."


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: In one of "Vampires"s most positive reviews, Gene Siskel awarded the film with four out of four stars, calling the film "a high-action homage to westerns and classic horror that actually has a unique story and masterful cinematography" and "a film that should put John Carpenter back on the map as a horror director and a film director in general." Siskel also expressed his fondness in the fact that film starred an all-adult cast without any teenagers and portrayed both vampires and vampire hunters in an original way. At the end of the year, he placed James Woods as his pick for his "Best Actor" suggestion to the Oscars.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: John Steakley, the author of the original novel, liked the film but said it contained much of his dialogue and none of his plot.


title: Vampires (1998 film)

text: According to Carpenter, Gary Kibbe was shortlisted for the Best Cinematography at the 71st Academy Awards.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: In mechanics and physics, simple harmonic motion (sometimes abbreviated ) is a special type of periodic motion of a body resulting from a dynamic equilibrium between an inertial force, proportional to the acceleration of the body away from the static equilibrium position and a restoring force on the moving object that is directly proportional to the magnitude of the object's displacement and acts towards the object's equilibrium position. It results in an oscillation, described by a sinusoid which continues indefinitely, if uninhibited by friction or any other dissipation of energy.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: Simple harmonic motion can serve as a mathematical model for a variety of motions, but is typified by the oscillation of a mass on a spring when it is subject to the linear elastic restoring force given by Hooke's law. The motion is sinusoidal in time and demonstrates a single resonant frequency. Other phenomena can be modeled by simple harmonic motion, including the motion of a simple pendulum, although for it to be an accurate model, the net force on the object at the end of the pendulum must be proportional to the displacement (and even so, it is only a good approximation when the angle of the swing is small; see small-angle approximation). Simple harmonic motion can also be used to model molecular vibration.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: Simple harmonic motion provides a basis for the characterization of more complicated periodic motion through the techniques of Fourier analysis.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: The motion of a particle moving along a straight line with an acceleration whose direction is always towards a fixed point on the line and whose magnitude is proportional to the distance from the fixed point is called simple harmonic motion.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: In the diagram, a simple harmonic oscillator, consisting of a weight attached to one end of a spring, is shown. The other end of the spring is connected to a rigid support such as a wall. If the system is left at rest at the equilibrium position then there is no net force acting on the mass. However, if the mass is displaced from the equilibrium position, the spring exerts a restoring elastic force that obeys Hooke's law.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: where is the restoring elastic force exerted by the spring (in SI units: N), is the spring constant (N·m), and is the displacement from the equilibrium position (m).


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: Once the mass is displaced from its equilibrium position, it experiences a net restoring force. As a result, it accelerates and starts going back to the equilibrium position. When the mass moves closer to the equilibrium position, the restoring force decreases. At the equilibrium position, the net restoring force vanishes. However, at , the mass has momentum because of the acceleration that the restoring force has imparted. Therefore, the mass continues past the equilibrium position, compressing the spring. A net restoring force then slows it down until its velocity reaches zero, whereupon it is accelerated back to the equilibrium position again.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: As long as the system has no energy loss, the mass continues to oscillate. Thus simple harmonic motion is a type of periodic motion. If energy is lost in the system, then the mass exhibits damped oscillation.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: Note if the real space and phase space plot are not co-linear, the phase space motion becomes elliptical. The area enclosed depends on the amplitude and the maximum momentum.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: In Newtonian mechanics, for one-dimensional simple harmonic motion, the equation of motion, which is a second-order linear ordinary differential equation with constant coefficients, can be obtained by means of Newton's 2nd law and Hooke's law for a mass on a spring.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: where is the inertial mass of the oscillating body, is its displacement from the equilibrium (or mean) position, and is a constant (the spring constant for a mass on a spring).


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: The meaning of the constants formula_6 and formula_7 can be easily found: setting formula_8 on the equation above we see that formula_9, so that formula_6 is the initial position of the particle, formula_11; taking the derivative of that equation and evaluating at zero we get that formula_12, so that formula_7 is the initial speed of the particle divided by the angular frequency, formula_14. Thus we can write:


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: These equations demonstrate that the simple harmonic motion is isochronous (the period and frequency are independent of the amplitude and the initial phase of the motion).


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: A mass attached to a spring of spring constant exhibits simple harmonic motion in closed space. The equation for describing the period


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: shows the period of oscillation is independent of the amplitude, though in practice the amplitude should be small. The above equation is also valid in the case when an additional constant force is being applied on the mass, i.e. the additional constant force cannot change the period of oscillation.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: Simple harmonic motion can be considered the one-dimensional projection of uniform circular motion. If an object moves with angular speed around a circle of radius centered at the origin of the -plane, then its motion along each coordinate is simple harmonic motion with amplitude and angular frequency .


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: It is the motion of a body when it moves to and fro about a definite point. This type of motion is also called Oscillatory motion or vibratory motion. The time period is able to be calculated by


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: where l is the distance from rotation to centre of mass of object undergoing SHM and g being gravitational field constant. This is analogous to the mass-spring system.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: In the small-angle approximation, the motion of a simple pendulum is approximated by simple harmonic motion. The period of a mass attached to a pendulum of length with gravitational acceleration formula_24 is given by


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: This shows that the period of oscillation is independent of the amplitude and mass of the pendulum but not of the acceleration due to gravity, formula_24, therefore a pendulum of the same length on the Moon would swing more slowly due to the Moon's lower gravitational field strength. Because the value of formula_24 varies slightly over the surface of the earth, the time period will vary slightly from place to place and will also vary with height above sea level.


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: This approximation is accurate only for small angles because of the expression for angular acceleration being proportional to the sine of the displacement angle:


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: which makes angular acceleration directly proportional and opposite to , satisfying the definition of simple harmonic motion (that net force is directly proportional to the displacement from the mean position and is directed towards the mean position).


title: Simple harmonic motion

text: A Scotch yoke mechanism can be used to convert between rotational motion and linear reciprocating motion. The linear motion can take various forms depending on the shape of the slot, but the basic yoke with a constant rotation speed produces a linear motion that is simple harmonic in form.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Roberta Metsola (; née Tedesco Triccas; born 18 January 1979) is a Maltese politician serving as President of the European Parliament since January 2022.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Metsola was first elected to as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2013, and became the First Vice-President of the European Parliament in November 2020. Following the death of the incumbent President David Sassoli, Metsola was elected as President of the European Parliament on 18 January 2022, becoming the youngest ever President, the first Maltese person to hold the office, and the first female President since 2002.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: The Tedesco Triccas family stems from Swieqi near St. Julian's, Malta, and Roberta grew up with her father Geoffrey (son of Emmanuel Tedesco and Helen Triccas Dimech), her mother Rita (daughter of Carmelo Bezzina and Francesca Briffa) and her two sisters Ann and Lisa in Gżira. She studied at St Joseph School in Sliema, St Aloysius' College sixth form, and she graduated in law from the University of Malta in 2003 and obtained a diploma in European studies from the College of Europe in Bruges in 2004.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Roberta Tedesco Triccas and her Finnish husband Ukko Metsola (National Coalition Party) met in 1999 and married in Rabat, Malta, on 1 October 2005. Together, they have four sons: Luca Matias (born 2007), Alec Emil (born 2008), Marc (born 2012) and Kristian (born 2016). They both ran for the 2009 European Parliament election, becoming the first married couple to run in the same European Parliament election from two different member states.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Metsola has been active since youth within Malta's Partit Nazzjonalista (PN), serving within the party's international secretariat and volunteering with the PN's election arm ELCOM. In her student years, Metsola formed part of the SDM (Studenti Demokristjani Maltin), KNZ (The National Youth Council) and MŻPN (Moviment Żgħażagħ Partit Nazzjonalista), before being elected as Secretary General of the European Democrat Students (EDS), the student branch of the EPP, as well as to posts within the European Youth Forum (YFJ).


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In 2002, at 23 years, she was elected as one of the two vice-presidents of the executive board of the Youth Convention on the Future of Europe, and the following year she actively campaigned with the PN for a Yes vote in the 2003 EU membership referendum.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Following her engagement in the EU referendum campaign, 25-year-old Metsola was encouraged by Malta's Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to run for the 2004 European elections as a candidate for the Nationalist Party. She was not elected.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In October 2004 Metsola joined the Permanent Representation of Malta to the European Union in Brussels, headed by Richard Cachia Caruana, where she worked for 8 years as legal and judicial cooperation attaché, also participating for Malta in the negotiations of the Lisbon Treaty and working on files such as the set-up of the European Asylum Support Office in Malta.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In 2013-2014 Metsola briefly served as legal advisor to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: On 24 April 2013 Metsola successfully contested the casual election to fill the vacated seat of Simon Busuttil, becoming one of Malta's first female Members of the European Parliament. In the Parliament, she sits as a member of the European People's Party Group (EPP).


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Following her re-election at the 2014 elections, Metsola was elected as a vice-chair of the Committee on Petitions (PETI) in July 2014. In addition, she served as a member of a number of committees and delegations. She also joined the parliamentary intergroup on children's rights. Metsola was further re-elected at the 2019 elections; in this legislature she has followed closely the party line, voting together with the EPP delegation in over 90% of the cases.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In 2014 Metsola led the EPP representation in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in the work on the non-binding EU roadmap against homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, whose rapporteur was Green MEP Ulrike Lunacek. She was also the parliament's rapporteur on the European Border and Coastguard Regulation in 2019 and was co-rapporteur on an anti-SLAPP report in 2021.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Metsola also co-authored a non-binding report on the European migrant crisis in 2016, aimed at establishing a "binding and mandatory legislative approach" on resettlement and new EU-wide "readmission" agreements which should take precedence over bilateral ones between EU and non-EU countries.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: From 2016 until 2017, Metsola was part of the Parliament's Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) that investigated the Panama Papers revelations and tax avoidance schemes more broadly.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Within LIBE, where she chaired the EPP representation between January 2017 and 2020, she has been part of the Rule of Law Monitoring Group (ROLMG) since 2018.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In 2019, during the controversies following the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, she famously refused to shake hands with Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at a meeting with the Members of European Parliament from Malta. "If he thinks he can try to brush off responsibility he is sorely mistaken. Get out now, before you do irreparable damage to the country", she wrote.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In 2020 Metsola considered contesting the leadership of Partit Nazzjonalista, but finally decided against it. "Some ceilings need a few more cracks before they can be smashed through", she stated. The post was later filled by Bernard Grech.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In October 2020, in the discussion in LIBE on a parliamentary resolution on "the rule of law and fundamental rights in Bulgaria", Metsola tabled amendments on behalf of the EPP which were widely interpreted as shielding Bulgaria's EPP government from criticism, including by proposing to remove references to Venice Commission findings and to the misuse of EU funds and high-level corruption allegations directly involving Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Other amendments, which she later withdrew, also alleged that a gambling boss had been financing the street protest movement. This caused outrage in Bulgaria, leading to Metsola's social media accounts being flooded by protest messages, including threats and misogyny. The EPP amendments were finally defeated, and the resolution was adopted as it had been originally proposed.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In November 2020, Metsola was elected as First Vice-President of the European Parliament, replacing Mairead McGuinness, who had become European Commissioner. She was the first Maltese MEP to become a vice-president.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: In November 2021, Metsola was chosen as EPP candidate to succeed David Sassoli as President of the European Parliament on the expiry of his term as president in January 2022. Sassoli had been hospitalised with pneumonia in September 2021 and in December announced that he would not seek a second term as president, making Metsola his likely successor. Following further hospitalisation, Sassoli died on 11 January 2022, one week before the end of his term. On Sassoli's death, Metsola became the acting President of the European Parliament.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: On 18 January 2022, on her 43rd birthday, Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament for a two-and-a-half-year term. She was elected in the first round of voting, receiving an absolute majority of 458 votes out of the 690 cast. As the candidate of the EPP, she was also supported by the S&D and Renew Europe parliamentary groups, after the three groups reached an agreement on the election of the President and the vice-presidents and legislative priorities for the second half of the Parliament's term. On her election, Metsola became the youngest ever President, the first Maltese person to hold the office, and the first woman President since 2002 (and only third woman president ever). The subject made a statement days after being present as Belgian police searched the residence of Greek MEP Eva Kaili in the widening investigation of members of the European parliament over alleged corruption, money laundering and other offenses in relation to possible schemes of Qatar, Morocco, NGOs and the FIFA World Cup.


title: Roberta Metsola

text: Metsola had consistently voted for anti-abortion resolutions, and from the beginning of her tenure, she faced questions over her opposition to abortion, which is legal in every EU member state, except Malta and Poland. She once said in a 2015 statement that she was "categorically against abortion." On her election as President of the European Parliament, she stated that during her tenure, she will represent the Parliament's position, which recognises safe access to abortion as a human right.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The hyoid bone (lingual bone or tongue-bone) () is a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of the neck between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. At rest, it lies between the base of the mandible and the third cervical vertebra.


title: Hyoid bone

text: Unlike other bones, the hyoid is only distantly articulated to other bones by muscles or ligaments. It is the only bone in the human body that is not connected to any other bones nearby. The hyoid is anchored by muscles from the anterior, posterior and inferior directions, and aids in tongue movement and swallowing. The hyoid bone provides attachment to the muscles of the floor of the mouth and the tongue above, the larynx below, and the epiglottis and pharynx behind.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The hyoid bone is classed as an irregular bone and consists of a central part called the body, and two pairs of horns, the greater and lesser horns.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The greater horns project backward from the outer borders of the body; they are flattened from above downward and taper to their end, which is a bony tubercle connecting to the lateral thyrohyoid ligament. The upper surface of the greater horns are rough and close to its lateral border, and facilitates muscular attachment. The largest of muscles that attach to the upper surface of the greater horns are the hyoglossus and the middle pharyngeal constrictor, which extend along the whole length of the horns; the digastric muscle and stylohyoid muscle have small insertions in front of these near the junction of the body with the horns. To the medial border the thyrohyoid membrane is attached, while the anterior half of the lateral border gives insertion to the thyrohyoid muscle.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The lesser horns are two small, conical eminences, attached by their bases to the angles of junction between the body and greater horns of the hyoid bone. They are connected to the body of the bone by fibrous tissue, and occasionally to the greater horns by distinct diarthrodial joints, which usually persist throughout life, but occasionally become ankylosed. The lesser horns are situated in the line of the transverse ridge on the body and appear to be continuations of it. The apex of each horn gives attachment to the stylohyoid ligament; the chondroglossus rises from the medial side of the base.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The second pharyngeal arch, also called the hyoid arch, gives rise to the lesser cornu of the hyoid and the upper part of the body of the hyoid. The cartilage of the third pharyngeal arch forms the greater cornu of the hyoid and the lower portion of the body of the hyoid.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The hyoid is ossified from six centers: two for the body, and one for each cornu. Ossification commences in the greater cornua toward the end of fetal development, in the hyoid body shortly afterward, and in the lesser cornua during the first or second year after birth. Until middle age the connection between the body and greater cornu is fibrous.


title: Hyoid bone

text: In early life the outer borders of the body are connected to the greater horns by synchondroses; after middle life usually by bony union.


title: Hyoid bone

text: Blood is supplied to the hyoid bone via the lingual artery, which runs down from the tongue to the greater horns of the bone. The suprahyoid branch of the lingual artery runs along the upper border of the hyoid bone and supplies blood to the attached muscles.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The hyoid bone is present in many mammals. It allows a wider range of tongue, pharyngeal and laryngeal movements by bracing these structures alongside each other in order to produce variation. Its descent in living creatures is not unique to "Homo sapiens", and does not allow the production of a wide range of sounds: with a lower larynx, men do not produce a wider range of sounds than women and two-year-old babies. Moreover, the larynx position of Neanderthals was not a handicap to producing speech sounds. The discovery of a modern-looking hyoid bone of a Neanderthal man in the Kebara Cave in Israel led its discoverers to argue that the Neanderthals had a descended larynx, and thus human-like speech capabilities. However, other researchers have claimed that the morphology of the hyoid is not indicative of the larynx's position. Recent research has indicated that the hyoid bone may have significant involvement in the ability to swallow. It has been hypothesized that the mammalian hyoid bone evolved in conjunction with the development of lactation, thus allowing babies to suckle milk. It is necessary to take into consideration the skull base, the mandible and the cervical vertebrae and a cranial reference plane.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The hyoid bone is important to a number of physiological functions, including breathing, swallowing and speech. It is also thought to play a key role in keeping the upper airway open during sleep, and as such, the development and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA; characterized by repetitive collapse of the upper airway during sleep). A mechanistic involvement of the hyoid bone in OSA is supported by numerous studies demonstrating that a more inferiorly positioned hyoid bone is strongly associated with the presence and severity of the disorder. Movement of the hyoid bone is also thought to be important in modifying upper airway properties, which was recently demonstrated in computer model simulations. A surgical procedure that aims to potentially increase and improve the airway is called hyoid suspension.


title: Hyoid bone

text: Due to its position, the hyoid bone is not easily susceptible to fracture. In a suspected case of murder or physical abuse of an adult, a fractured hyoid strongly indicates throttling or strangulation. In children and adolescents (in whom the hyoid bone is still flexible because ossification is yet to be completed) fracture may not occur even after serious trauma.


title: Hyoid bone

text: The hyoid bone is derived from the lower half of the second gill arch in fish, which separates the first gill slit from the spiracle, and is often called the "hyoid arch". In many vertebrates, it also incorporates elements of other gill arches, and has a correspondingly greater number of cornua. Amphibians and reptiles may have many cornua, while mammals (including humans) have two pairs, and birds only one. In birds, and some reptiles, the body of the hyoid is greatly extended forward, creating a solid bony support for the tongue. The howler monkey "Alouatta" has a pneumatized hyoid bone, one of the few cases of postcranial pneumatization of bones outside Saurischia.


title: Hyoid bone

text: In mammals, the hyoid often determines whether one can roar. If the hyoid is incompletely ossified (for example: lions) it allows the animal to roar, but not purr. If the hyoid is completely ossified (for example: cheetahs), it does not allow the animal to roar, but instead will allow the animal to purr and meow, as seen in house cats (lions, cheetahs and house cats all belong to the family Felidae).


title: Hyoid bone

text: In veterinary anatomy, the term hyoid apparatus is the collective term used to refer to the bones of the tongue—a pair of stylohyoidea, a pair of thyrohyoidea, and unpaired basihyoideum—and associated, upper-gular connective tissues. In humans, the single hyoid bone is an equivalent of the hyoid apparatus.


title: Yves Montand

text: Ivo Livi (), better known as Yves Montand (; 13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), was an Italian-French actor and singer.


title: Yves Montand

text: Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giovanni Livi, a broom manufacturer, Ivo held strong Communist beliefs. Montand's mother Giuseppina Simoni was a devout Catholic. The family left Italy for France in 1923 following Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime. He grew up in Marseille, where, as a young man, he worked in his sister's beauty salon (Salon de Coiffure), and later on the docks. He began a career in show business as a music-hall singer. In 1944, he was discovered by Édith Piaf in Paris and she made him part of her act.


title: Yves Montand

text: Montand achieved international recognition as a singer and actor, starring in many films. His recognizably crooner songs, especially those about Paris, became instant classics. He was one of the best known performers at Bruno Coquatrix's Paris Olympia music hall, and toured with musicians including Didi Duprat. In October 1947, he sang "Mais qu'est-ce que j'ai ?" (music by Henri Betti and lyrics by Édith Piaf) at the Théâtre de l'Étoile. Betti also asked him to sing "C'est si bon" but Montand refused. Following the success of the recording of this song by the Sœurs Étienne in 1948, he decided to record it. Montand was also very popular in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where he did a concert tour in 1956-57.


title: Yves Montand

text: During his career, Montand acted in American motion pictures as well as on Broadway. He was nominated for a César Award for Best Actor in 1980 for "I comme Icare" and again in 1984 for "Garçon!" In 1986, after his international box-office draw power had fallen off considerably, the 65-year-old Montand gave one of his best remembered performances, as the scheming uncle in "Jean de Florette", co-starring Gérard Depardieu, and "Manon des Sources" (both 1986), co-starring Emmanuelle Béart. The film was a worldwide critical hit and revived Montand's profile in the US, where he made an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman".


title: Yves Montand

text: In 1951, he married Simone Signoret, and they co-starred in several films throughout their careers. The marriage was, by all accounts, fairly harmonious, lasting until her death in 1985, although Montand had a number of well-publicized affairs, notably with Marilyn Monroe, with whom he starred in one of her last films, "Let's Make Love". He was the stepfather to Signoret's daughter from her prior marriage, Catherine Allégret.


title: Yves Montand

text: Montand's only child, Valentin, his son by his second wife, Carole Amiel, was born in 1988. In a paternity suit that rocked France, another woman accused Montand of being the father of her daughter and went to court to obtain a DNA sample from him. Montand refused, but the woman persisted even after his death. In a court ruling that made international headlines, the woman won the right to have Montand exhumed and a sample taken. The results indicated that he was probably not the girl's biological father.


title: Yves Montand

text: He supported left-wing causes during the 1950s and 1960s, and attended Communist festivals and meetings. In later life he supported right-wing causes.


title: Yves Montand

text: Signoret and Montand had a home in Autheuil-Authouillet, Normandy, where the main village street is named after him.


title: Yves Montand

text: In his later years he maintained a home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Provence, until his death from a heart attack in November 1991. In an interview, Jean-Jacques Beineix said, "[H]e died on the set [of "IP5: The Island of Pachyderms"]... On the very last day, after his very last shot. It was the very last night and we were doing retakes. He finished what he was doing and then he just died. And the film tells the story of an old man who dies from a heart attack, which is the same thing that happened!" Montand is interred next to his first wife, Simone Signoret, in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.


title: Yves Montand

text: In 2004, Catherine Allégret, Signoret's daughter from her first marriage to director Yves Allégret, alleged in her autobiography "Un monde a l'envers" ("A World Upside Down") that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather from the age of five; his behaviour apparently continuing for many years. and that he had a "more than equivocal attitude to her" as she got older. However she also claimed to have been reconciled to him in the latter years of his life.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory. The victory, a product of Lee's audacity and Hooker's timid decision-making, was tempered by heavy casualties, including Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Jackson was hit by friendly fire, requiring his left arm to be amputated. He died of pneumonia eight days later, a loss that Lee likened to losing his right arm.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The two armies faced off against each other at Fredericksburg during the winter of 1862–1863. The Chancellorsville campaign began when Hooker secretly moved the bulk of his army up the left bank of the Rappahannock River, then crossed it on the morning of April 27, 1863. Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. George Stoneman began a long-distance raid against Lee's supply lines at about the same time. This operation was completely ineffectual. Crossing the Rapidan River via Germanna and Ely's Fords, the Federal infantry concentrated near Chancellorsville on April 30. Combined with the Union force facing Fredericksburg, Hooker planned a double envelopment, attacking Lee from both his front and rear.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: On May 1, Hooker advanced from Chancellorsville toward Lee, but the Confederate general split his army in the face of superior numbers, leaving a small force at Fredericksburg to deter Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick from advancing, while he attacked Hooker's advance with about four-fifths of his army. Despite the objections of his subordinates, Hooker withdrew his men to the defensive lines around Chancellorsville, ceding the initiative to Lee. On May 2, Lee divided his army again, sending Stonewall Jackson's entire corps on a flanking march that routed the Union XI Corps. While performing a personal reconnaissance in advance of his line, Jackson was wounded by fire after dark from his own men close between the lines, and cavalry commander Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart temporarily replaced him as corps commander.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The fiercest fighting of the battle—and the second bloodiest day of the Civil War—occurred on May 3 as Lee launched multiple attacks against the Union position at Chancellorsville, resulting in heavy losses on both sides and the pulling back of Hooker's main army. That same day, Sedgwick advanced across the Rappahannock River, defeated the small Confederate force at Marye's Heights in the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, and then moved to the west. The Confederates fought a successful delaying action at the Battle of Salem Church. On the 4th Lee turned his back on Hooker and attacked Sedgwick, and drove him back to Banks' Ford, surrounding them on three sides. Sedgwick withdrew across the ford early on May 5. Lee turned back to confront Hooker who withdrew the remainder of his army across U.S. Ford the night of May 5–6.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The campaign ended on May 7 when Stoneman's cavalry reached Union lines east of Richmond. Both armies resumed their previous position across the Rappahannock from each other at Fredericksburg. With the loss of Jackson, Lee reorganized his army, and flush with victory began what was to become the Gettysburg campaign a month later.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: In the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, the objective of the Union had been to advance and seize the Confederate capital, Richmond, Virginia. In the first two years of the war, four major attempts had failed: the first foundered just miles away from Washington, D.C., at the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) in July 1861. Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign took an amphibious approach, landing his Army of the Potomac on the Virginia Peninsula in the spring of 1862 and coming within of Richmond before being turned back by Gen. Robert E. Lee in the Seven Days Battles.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: That summer, Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia was defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Finally, in December 1862, Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac attempted to reach Richmond by way of Fredericksburg, Virginia, but was defeated at the Battle of Fredericksburg.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: In January 1863, the Army of the Potomac, following the Battle of Fredericksburg and the humiliating Mud March, suffered from rising desertions and plunging morale. Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside decided to conduct a mass purge of the Army of the Potomac's leadership, eliminating a number of generals who he felt were responsible for the disaster at Fredericksburg. In reality, he had no power to dismiss anyone without the approval of Congress.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Predictably, Burnside's purge went nowhere, and he offered President Abraham Lincoln his resignation from command of the Army of the Potomac. He even offered to resign entirely from the Army, but the president persuaded him to stay, transferring him to the Western Theater, where he became commander of the Department of the Ohio. Burnside's former command, the IX Corps, was transferred to the Virginia Peninsula, a movement that prompted the Confederates to detach troops from Lee's army under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, a decision that would be consequential in the upcoming campaign.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Abraham Lincoln had become convinced that the appropriate objective for his Eastern army was the army of Robert E. Lee, not any geographic features such as a capital city, but he and his generals knew that the most reliable way to bring Lee to a decisive battle was to threaten his capital. Lincoln tried a fifth time with a new general on January 25, 1863—Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, a man with a pugnacious reputation who had performed well in previous subordinate commands.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: With Burnside's departure, Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin left as well. Franklin had been a staunch supporter of George B. McClellan and refused to serve under Hooker, because he disliked him personally and also because he was senior to Hooker in rank. Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner stepped down due to old age (he was 65) and poor health. He was reassigned to a command in Missouri, but died before he could assume it. Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield was reassigned from command of the V Corps to be Hooker's chief of staff.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker embarked on a much-needed reorganization of the army, doing away with Burnside's grand division system, which had proved unwieldy; he also no longer had sufficient senior officers on hand that he could trust to command multi-corps operations. He organized the cavalry into a separate corps under the command of Brig. Gen. George Stoneman (who had commanded the III Corps at Fredericksburg). But while he concentrated the cavalry into a single organization, he dispersed his artillery battalions to the control of the infantry division commanders, removing the coordinating influence of the army's artillery chief, Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker established a reputation as an outstanding administrator and restored the morale of his soldiers, which had plummeted to a new low under Burnside. Among his changes were fixes to the daily diet of the troops, camp sanitary changes, improvements and accountability of the quartermaster system, addition of and monitoring of company cooks, several hospital reforms, an improved furlough system, orders to stem rising desertion, improved drills, and stronger officer training.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker took advantage of improved military intelligence about the positioning and capabilities of the opposing army, superior to that available to his predecessors in army command. His chief of staff, Butterfield, commissioned Col. George H. Sharpe from the 120th New York Infantry to organize a new Bureau of Military Information in the Army of the Potomac, part of the provost marshal function under Brig. Gen. Marsena R. Patrick. Previously, intelligence gatherers, such as Allan Pinkerton and his detective agency, gathered information only by interrogating prisoners, deserters, "contrabands" (slaves), and refugees.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The new BMI added other sources including infantry and cavalry reconnaissance, spies, scouts, signal stations, and an aerial balloon corps. As he received the more complete information correlated from these additional sources, Hooker realized that if he were to avoid the bloodbath of direct frontal attacks, which were features of the battles of Antietam and, more recently, Fredericksburg, he could not succeed in his crossing of the Rappahannock "except by stratagem."


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker's army faced Lee across the Rappahannock from its winter quarters in Falmouth and around Fredericksburg. Hooker developed a strategy that was, on paper, superior to those of his predecessors. He planned to send his 10,000 cavalrymen under Maj. Gen. George Stoneman to cross the Rappahannock far upstream and raid deep into the Confederate rear areas, destroying crucial supply depots along the railroad from the Confederate capital in Richmond to Fredericksburg, which would cut Lee's lines of communication and supply.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker reasoned that Lee would react to this threat by abandoning his fortified positions on the Rappahannock and withdrawing toward his capital. At that time, Hooker's infantry would cross the Rappahannock in pursuit, attacking Lee when he was moving and vulnerable. Stoneman attempted to execute this turning movement on April 13, but heavy rains made the river crossing site at Sulphur Spring impassable. President Lincoln lamented, "I greatly fear it is another failure already." Hooker was forced to create a new plan for a meeting with Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and general in chief Henry W. Halleck in Aquia on April 19.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker's second plan was to launch both his cavalry and infantry simultaneously in a bold double envelopment of Lee's army. Stoneman's cavalry would make a second attempt at its deep strategic raid, but at the same time, 42,000 men in three corps (V, XI, XII Corps) would stealthily march to cross the Rappahannock upriver at Kelly's Ford. They would then proceed south and cross the Rapidan at Germanna and Ely's Ford, concentrate at the Chancellorsville crossroads, and attack Lee's army from the west.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: While they were under way, 10,000 men in two divisions from the II Corps would cross at the U.S. Ford and join with the V Corps in pushing the Confederates away from the river. The second half of the double envelopment was to come from the east: 40,000 men in two corps (I and VI Corps, under the overall command of John Sedgwick) would cross the Rappahannock below Fredericksburg and threaten to attack Stonewall Jackson's position on the Confederate right flank.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The remaining 25,000 men (III Corps and one division of the II Corps) would remain visible in their camps at Falmouth to divert Confederate attention from the turning movement. Hooker anticipated that Lee would either be forced to retreat, in which case he would be vigorously pursued, or he would be forced to attack the Union Army on unfavorable terrain.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: One of the defining characteristics of the battlefield was a dense woodland south of the Rapidan known locally as the "Wilderness of Spotsylvania". The area had once been an open broadleaf forest, but during colonial times the trees were gradually cut down to make charcoal for local pig iron furnaces. When the supply of wood was exhausted, the furnaces were abandoned and secondary forest growth developed, creating a dense mass of brambles, thickets, vines, and low-lying vegetation.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Catharine Furnace, abandoned in the 1840s, had recently been reactivated to produce iron for the Confederate war effort. This area was largely unsuitable for the deployment of artillery and the control of large infantry formations, which would nullify some of the Union advantage in military power. It was important for Hooker's plan that his men move quickly out of this area and attack Lee in the open ground to the east. There were three primary roads available for this west-to-east movement: the Orange Plank Road, the Orange Turnpike, and the River Road.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The Confederate dispositions were as follows: the Rappahannock line at Fredericksburg was occupied by Longstreet's First Corps division of Lafayette McLaws on Marye's Heights, with Jackson's entire Second Corps to their right. Early's division was at Prospect Hill and the divisions of Rodes, Hill, and Colston extended the Confederate right flank along the river almost to Skinker's Neck. The other division present from Longstreet's Corps, Anderson's, guarded the river crossings on the left flank. Stuart's cavalry was largely in Culpeper County near Kelly's Ford, beyond the infantry's left flank.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: On April 27–28, the initial three corps of the Army of the Potomac began their march under the leadership of Slocum. They crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers as planned and began to concentrate on April 30 around the hamlet of Chancellorsville, which was little more than a single large, brick mansion at the junction of the Orange Turnpike and Orange Plank Road. Built in the early 19th century, it had been used as an inn on the turnpike for many years, but now served as a home for the Frances Chancellor family. Some of the family remained in the house during the battle.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker arrived late in the afternoon on April 30 and made the mansion his headquarters. Stoneman's cavalry began on April 30 its second attempt to reach Lee's rear areas. Two divisions of II Corps crossed at U.S. Ford on April 30 without opposition. By dawn on April 29, pontoon bridges spanned the Rappahannock south of Fredericksburg and Sedgwick's force began to cross.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Pleased with the success of the operation so far, and realizing that the Confederates were not vigorously opposing the river crossings, Hooker ordered Sickles to begin the movement of the III Corps from Falmouth the night of April 30 – May 1. By May 1, Hooker had approximately 70,000 men concentrated in and around Chancellorsville.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: In his Fredericksburg headquarters, Lee was initially in the dark about the Union intentions and he suspected that the main column under Slocum was heading towards Gordonsville. Jeb Stuart's cavalry was cut off at first by Stoneman's departure on April 30, but they were soon able to move freely around the army's flanks on their reconnaissance missions after almost all their Union counterparts had left the area.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: As Stuart's intelligence information about the Union river crossings began to arrive, Lee did not react as Hooker had anticipated. He decided to violate one of the generally accepted principles of war and divide his force in the face of a superior enemy, hoping that aggressive action would allow him to attack and defeat a portion of Hooker's army before it could be fully concentrated against him. He became convinced that Sedgwick's force would demonstrate against him, but not become a serious threat, so he ordered about 4/5 of his army to meet the challenge from Chancellorsville. He left behind a brigade under Brig. Gen. William Barksdale on heavily fortified Marye's Heights behind Fredericksburg and one division under Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early, on Prospect Hill south of the town.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: These roughly 11,000 men and 56 guns would attempt to resist any advance by Sedgwick's 40,000. He ordered Stonewall Jackson to march west and link up with Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson's division, which had pulled back from the river crossings they were guarding and began digging earthworks on a north-south line between the Zoan and Tabernacle churches. McLaws's division was ordered from Fredericksburg to join Anderson. This would amass 40,000 men to confront Hooker's movement east from Chancellorsville. Heavy fog along the Rappahannock masked some of these westward movements and Sedgwick chose to wait until he could determine the enemy's intentions.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, had 133,868 men and 413 guns organized as follows:


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fielded 60,298 men and 220 guns, organized as follows:


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The Chancellorsville campaign was one of the most lopsided clashes of the war, with the Union's effective fighting force more than twice the Confederates', the greatest imbalance during the war in Virginia. Hooker's army was much better supplied and was well-rested after several months of inactivity. Lee's forces, on the other hand, were poorly provisioned and were scattered all over the state of Virginia. Some 15,000 men of Longstreet's Corps had previously been detached and stationed near Norfolk in order to block a potential threat to Richmond from Federal troops stationed at Fort Monroe and Newport News on the Peninsula, as well as at Norfolk and Suffolk.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: In light of the continued Federal inactivity, by late March Longstreet's primary assignment became that of requisitioning provisions for Lee's forces from the farmers and planters of North Carolina and Virginia. As a result of this the two divisions of Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood and Maj. Gen. George Pickett were away from Lee's army and would take a week or more of marching to reach it in an emergency. After nearly a year of campaigning, allowing these troops to slip away from his immediate control was Lee's gravest miscalculation. Although he hoped to be able to call on them, these men would not arrive in time to aid his outnumbered forces.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Jackson's men began marching west to join with Anderson before dawn on May 1. Jackson himself met with Anderson near Zoan Church at 8 a.m., finding that McLaws's division had already arrived to join the defensive position. But Stonewall Jackson was not in a defensive mood. He ordered an advance at 11 a.m. along two roads toward Chancellorsville: McLaws's division and the brigade of Brig. Gen. William Mahone on the Turnpike, and Anderson's other brigades and Jackson's arriving units on the Plank Road.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: At about the same time, Hooker ordered his men to advance on three roads to the east: two divisions of Meade's V Corps (Griffin and Humphreys) on the River Road to uncover Banks's Ford, and the remaining division (Sykes) on the Turnpike; and Slocum's XII Corps on the Plank Road, with Howard's XI Corps in close support. Couch's II Corps was placed in reserve, where it would be soon joined by Sickles's III Corps.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The first shots of the Battle of Chancellorsville were fired at 11:20 a.m. as the armies collided. McLaws's initial attack pushed back Sykes's division. The Union general organized a counterattack that recovered the lost ground. Anderson then sent a brigade under Brig. Gen. Ambrose Wright up an unfinished railroad south of the Plank Road, around the right flank of Slocum's corps. This would normally be a serious problem, but Howard's XI Corps was advancing from the rear and could deal with Wright.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Sykes's division had proceeded farther forward than Slocum on his right, leaving him in an exposed position. This forced him to conduct an orderly withdrawal at 2 p.m. to take up a position behind Hancock's division of the II Corps, which was ordered by Hooker to advance and help repulse the Confederate attack. Meade's other two divisions made good progress on the River Road and were approaching their objective, Banks's Ford.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Despite being in a potentially favorable situation, Hooker halted his brief offensive. His actions may have demonstrated his lack of confidence in handling the complex actions of such a large organization for the first time (he had been an effective and aggressive division and corps commander in previous battles), but he had also decided before beginning the campaign that he would fight the battle defensively, forcing Lee, with his small army, to attack his own, larger one. At the [First] Battle of Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862), the Union army had done the attacking and met with a bloody defeat.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker knew Lee could not sustain such a defeat and keep an effective army in the field, so he ordered his men to withdraw back into the Wilderness and take a defensive position around Chancellorsville, daring Lee to attack him or retreat with superior forces at his back. He confused matters by issuing a second order to his subordinates to hold their positions until 5 p.m., but by the time it was received, most of the Union units had begun their rearward movements. That evening, Hooker sent a message to his corps commanders, "The major general commanding trusts that a suspension in the attack to-day will embolden the enemy to attack him."


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Hooker's subordinates were surprised and outraged by the change in plans. They saw that the position they were fighting for near the Zoan Church was relatively high ground and offered an opportunity for the infantry and artillery to deploy outside the constraints of the Wilderness. Meade exclaimed, "My God, if we can't hold the top of the hill, we certainly can't hold the bottom of it!" Viewing through the lens of hindsight, some of the participants and many modern historians judged that Hooker effectively lost the campaign on May 1. Stephen W. Sears observed, however, that Hooker's concern was based on more than personal timidity.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: The ground being disputed was little more than a clearing in the Wilderness, to which access was available by only two narrow roads. The Confederate response had swiftly concentrated the aggressive Stonewall Jackson's corps against his advancing columns such that the Federal army was outnumbered in that area, about 48,000 to 30,000, and would have difficulty maneuvering into effective lines of battle. Meade's two divisions on the River Road were too far separated to support Slocum and Sykes, and reinforcements from the rest of the II Corps and the III Corps would be too slow in arriving.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: As the Union troops dug in around Chancellorsville that night, creating log breastworks, faced with abatis, Lee and Stonewall Jackson met at the intersection of the Plank Road and the Furnace Road to plan their next move. Jackson believed that Hooker would retreat across the Rappahannock, but Lee assumed that the Union general had invested too much in the campaign to withdraw so precipitously. If the Federal troops were still in position on May 2, Lee would attack them. As they discussed their options, cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart arrived with an intelligence report from his subordinate, Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee.


title: Battle of Chancellorsville

text: Although Hooker's left flank was firmly anchored by Meade's V Corps on the Rappahannock, and his center was strongly fortified, his right flank was "in the air." Howard's XI Corps was camped on the Orange Turnpike, extending past Wilderness Church, and was vulnerable to a flanking attack. Investigations of a route to be used to reach the flank identified the proprietor of Catharine Furnace, Charles C. Wellford, who showed Jackson's cartographer, Jedediah Hotchkiss, a recently constructed road through the forest that would shield marchers from the observation of Union pickets. Lee directed Jackson to make the flanking march, a maneuver similar to the one that had been so successful prior to the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas). An account by Hotchkiss recalls that Lee asked Jackson how many men he would take on the flanking march and Jackson replied, "my whole command."