title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon d'Argent (Silver Room), in the east wing of the palace, was decorated by Caroline Murat, wife of Joachim Murat and sister of Napoleon I. The room is so called because of the silver coloured edges to the wall features, mantelpieces, tables, sofas and armchairs, of which the last have swan sculptures at the sides. Three notable historical events happened in this room. On 22 June 1815, Napoleon formally signed his abdication warrant after losing the Battle of Waterloo that year; on 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte launched his coup d'état; and in 1899, President Félix Faure met his mistress, Marguerite Steinheil.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salle à Manger Paulin (Paulin Dining Room), named after its architect, Pierre Paulin, is a complete contrast to most of the other rooms in the palace. It was designed as a private dining room for President Georges Pompidou and his wife Claude, and the interior and furniture date from the 1970s. The walls are made of 22 polyester panels, the chairs have a single leg attached to a round base, and the round table is made of glass. The room is lit by roof panels decorated with glass balls and rods.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon des Portraits (Portrait Room) was used by the Emperor Napoleon III for portrait medallions of the most important sovereigns of the time, replacing earlier portraits of the Bonaparte family installed by Joachim Murat. The portraits are of: Pope Pius IX, Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, King Frederick William IV of Prussia, Queen Isabel II of Spain and King William I of Württemberg. Previously a dining room, President Nicolas Sarkozy used the room as his second office.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salle des Fêtes (Hall of Festivities) dominates the west wing of the palace. It was designed by and opened on 10 May 1889 by the then President, Sadi Carnot, to coincide with the Exposition Universelle that year. The room has paintings on the ceiling called ""La République sauvegarde la Paix"" (The Republic Safeguards Peace), painted by Guillaume Dubufe in 1894. There are also six Gobelins tapestries in the room, which is predominantly laid out in red and gold decor. In 1984 President François Mitterrand added ten windows to the room to let in more light. It is in this room that all French Presidents are inaugurated, and where they host official conferences and banquets.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Jardins d'Hiver (Winter Gardens) was built in 1883 as a greenhouse for growing plants. Today it is no longer used for this purpose, being instead an extension of the Salon des Fêtes, and used for official banquets. There is a Gobelins tapestry on the wall, and three chandeliers hang from the ceiling.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon Murat (Murat Room) is used every Wednesday by the President for meetings with the Prime Minister and the rest of the Government of France, along with the presidential secretary, known as the "Secretary-General of the Élysée". It was also in this room that Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany, signed the Élysée Treaty in 1963.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon Cléopâtre (Cleopatra Room) gets its name from a Gobelins tapestry on the wall, installed during the presidency of Sadi Carnot, which depicts Antony and Cleopatra meeting at Tarsus. Also in the room is a portrait of Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma, painted by Alexandre Roslin.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon des Ambassadeurs (Ambassadors' Room) is where the French President officially receives ambassadors from abroad.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Escalier Murat (Murat Staircase) is the main staircase in the palace, linking the ground and first floors.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon Doré (Golden Room) is named after the gold coloured edges to the wall features, doors, tables and chairs. All the French Presidents have used this room as their main study except Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Emmanuel Macron.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon Vert (Green Room) is named after the green curtains and chair covers (the doors, chairs, tables and wall features have gold edges). The room is used for reunions, and it was here that Nicolas Sarkozy married his second wife, Carla Bruni, during his presidency.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon Angle (Angle Room) is a former dining room that has been the office of the Secretary-General of the Élysée since 2007.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Salon de Fougères (Flower Room) is named because it has floral patterned wallpaper. In the room is a portrait of King Louis XV, painted by Charles-André van Loo.


title: Élysée Palace

text: The Ancienne Chambre de la Reine and the Ancienne Chambre du Roi were the bedrooms of the former Kings and Queens of France. The latter room was formerly used as the office of the Secretary-General before he moved it to the Salon Angle.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: Neil Stephen Cicierega ( ; born August 23, 1986) is an American comedian, actor, filmmaker, singer, YouTuber, musician, songwriter, puppeteer, artist, and animator. He is known as the creator of a genre of Flash animation he termed "Animutation", the "Harry Potter" puppet parody series "Potter Puppet Pals", and several music albums under the name Lemon Demon. He also released a series of mashup albums under his own name that have since gained a cult following.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: Neil Stephen Cicierega was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 23, 1986. His father was a programmer, which meant he was surrounded by computers while growing up. He has a brother and two sisters. His sister, Emmy, went on to become a storyboard artist for animated series such as "Gravity Falls", "The Owl House", and the reboot of "DuckTales". At a young age, Cicierega started using a simplistic game developing program named Klik & Play. Beginning in the fourth grade, his parents homeschooled him and his siblings. He continued making amateur games, and even began creating digital music to feature in them; he soon shared his music online through MP3.com under the name Trapezoid, which was later renamed to the anagram "Deporitaz" at the behest of another band already named Trapezoid. He also began composing MIDI music fragments that were referenced in his later works.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: Cicierega was first known for a series of dadaist or surrealist Flash animations he termed "Animutation". Animutations feature arbitrary, nonsensical scenes and pop culture imagery and are typically set to novelty or foreign music, often from the Japanese version of "Pokémon".


title: Neil Cicierega

text: Cicierega's "Potter Puppet Pals" is a comedy series which parodies the book series "Harry Potter". It originated as a pair of Flash animations on Newgrounds in 2003, and later resurfaced in the form of a series of live action puppet shows released onto YouTube and PotterPuppetPals.com, starting in 2006. The central characters of the "Harry Potter" series are portrayed simply by puppets. The most successful "Potter Puppet Pals" video, "The Mysterious Ticking Noise", currently has over 200 million views (). Cicierega has done puppetry live at "Harry Potter"-themed events.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: Since 2003, Cicierega has released 10 full-length albums under his musical project Lemon Demon. In 2005, he and animator Shawn Vulliez released a Flash animated music video "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" on Newgrounds. The song was later included in the 2006 album "Dinosaurchestra". An updated recording of the song was released to the Rock Band Network in 2010.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: In April 2009, Cicierega released his first four albums as free downloads on his site "neilcic.com", however they are now currently hosted on "lemondemon.com".


title: Neil Cicierega

text: In January 2016, Cicierega announced "Spirit Phone", a full-length Lemon Demon album released on February 29, 2016. On July 10, 2018, it was announced that copies of the album on CD, cassette tape and vinyl would be sold through Needlejuice Records, who would later distribute remastered versions of Lemon Demon's Christmas EP "I Am Become Christmas", as well as "Nature Tapes", "View-Monster" and "Dinosaurchestra".


title: Neil Cicierega

text: Cicierega has also created mashup music under his own name. He released two mashup albums, "Mouth Sounds" and "Mouth Silence", as free downloads in 2014, and a third, "Mouth Moods", in 2017. A fourth album, "Mouth Dreams", was released on September 30, 2020. All four albums are linked by their usage of Smash Mouth's "All Star", which is repeated frequently throughout "Sounds" and "Moods", and appears through Easter Eggs and references in "Silence". In "Mouth Dreams" "All Star" only makes one appearance in the track "Mouth Dreams (Extro)", where a heavily distorted edit of the lyrics can be heard.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: In October 2012, Cicierega created the darkly satirical "Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks" blog, located at windows95tips.com. In the blog's telling, Windows 95 is a brooding, evil presence bent on dominating humanity. Most of the posts are faked error messages, with disturbing messages like "Windows needs a lock of your hair to continue," but presented in the exact graphical style of Windows 95. The blog has received favorable press attention.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: On October 3, 2002, Cicierega launched his first point-and-click adventure game, "Satan Quest". On February 26, 2015, he announced another game, "Icon Architect 1.0", with themes similar to his "Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks" blog. On February 5, 2018, he released "Monster Breeder".


title: Neil Cicierega

text: In February 2019, Cicierega created Endless Jeopardy, a Twitter account that automatically posts a bot-generated "Jeopardy!" prompt every hour and awards points to the most-liked responses within 15 minutes. In March 2019, he created "Bot Pops" (@BotPops), a Twitter account that writes setups for jokes on popsicle sticks, then finishes them with a punchline from the replies. In April 2019 he created "4:3" (@FullscreenDream), a Twitter account that randomly makes GIFs from old commercials and CGI shorts.


title: Neil Cicierega

text: Cicierega was commissioned to make three songs for the TV series "Gravity Falls": a theme song, a musical number for Bill Cipher titled "It's Gonna Get Weird", and the song "Goat and a Pig" (a parody of Natalie Cole's "This Will Be"). Both of Cicierega's theme songs and "It's Gonna Get Weird" were unused, but "Goat and Pig" appeared during the credits sequence of season 2 episode "The Love God". One of the two unused openings appeared as a bonus track on the 2016 Lemon Demon album "Spirit Phone", titled "Gravitron".


title: Neil Cicierega

text: On August 8, 2015, Cicierega married illustrator and comic artist Ming Doyle, with whom he lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. Their first child, a daughter named Darcy, was born in March 2018.


title: Unit of measurement

text: A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multiple of the unit of measurement.


title: Unit of measurement

text: For example, a length is a physical quantity. The metre (symbol m) is a unit of length that represents a definite predetermined length. For instance, when referencing "10 metres" (or 10 m), what is actually meant is 10 times the definite predetermined length called "metre".


title: Unit of measurement

text: The definition, agreement, and practical use of units of measurement have played a crucial role in human endeavour from early ages up to the present. A multitude of systems of units used to be very common. Now there is a global standard, the International System of Units (SI), the modern form of the metric system.


title: Unit of measurement

text: In trade, weights and measures is often a subject of governmental regulation, to ensure fairness and transparency. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) is tasked with ensuring worldwide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International System of Units (SI).


title: Unit of measurement

text: In physics and metrology, units are standards for measurement of physical quantities that need clear definitions to be useful. Reproducibility of experimental results is central to the scientific method. A standard system of units facilitates this. Scientific systems of units are a refinement of the concept of weights and measures historically developed for commercial purposes.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Science, medicine, and engineering often use larger and smaller units of measurement than those used in everyday life. The judicious selection of the units of measurement can aid researchers in problem solving (see, for example, dimensional analysis).


title: Unit of measurement

text: In the social sciences, there are no standard units of measurement and the theory and practice of measurement is studied in psychometrics and the theory of conjoint measurement.


title: Unit of measurement

text: A unit of measurement is a standardised quantity of a physical property, used as a factor to express occurring quantities of that property. Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans. Primitive societies needed rudimentary measures for many tasks: constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape, fashioning clothing, or bartering food or raw materials.


title: Unit of measurement

text: The earliest known uniform systems of measurement seem to have all been created sometime in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley, and perhaps also Elam in Persia as well.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Weights and measures are mentioned in the Bible (Leviticus 19:35–36). It is a commandment to be honest and have fair measures.


title: Unit of measurement

text: In the "Magna Carta" of 1215 (The Great Charter) with the seal of King John, put before him by the Barons of England, King John agreed in Clause 35 "There shall be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm, and one measure of ale and one measure of corn—namely, the London quart;—and one width of dyed and russet and hauberk cloths—namely, two ells below the selvage..."


title: Unit of measurement

text: As of the 21st Century, multiple unit systems are used all over the world such as the United States Customary System, the British Customary System, and the International System. However, the United States is the only industrialized country that has not yet at least mostly converted to the Metric System. The systematic effort to develop a universally acceptable system of units dates back to 1790 when the French National Assembly charged the French Academy of Sciences to come up such a unit system. This system was the precursor to the metric system which was quickly developed in France but did not take on universal acceptance until 1875 when The Metric Convention Treaty was signed by 17 nations. After this treaty was signed, a General Conference of Weights and Measures (CGPM) was established. The CGPM produced the current SI system which was adopted in 1954 at the 10th conference of weights and measures. Currently, the United States is a dual-system society which uses both the SI system and the US Customary system.


title: Unit of measurement

text: The use of a single unit of measurement for some quantity has obvious drawbacks. For example, it is impractical to use the same unit for the distance between two cities and the length of a needle. Thus, historically they would develop independently. One way to make large numbers or small fractions easier to read, is to use unit prefixes.


title: Unit of measurement

text: At some point in time though, the need to relate the two units might arise, and consequently the need to choose one unit as defining the other or vice versa. For example, an inch could be defined in terms of a barleycorn. A system of measurement is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other.


title: Unit of measurement

text: As science progressed, a need arose to relate the measurement systems of different quantities, like length and weight and volume. The effort of attempting to relate different traditional systems between each other exposed many inconsistencies, and brought about the development of new units and systems.


title: Unit of measurement

text: The system of units varies from country to country and some of the different system of units are CGS system of units, FPS system of units, MKS system of units and SI system of units. Among the different systems of units used in the world, the most widely used and internationally accepted one is the International System of Units, or SI system of units. In this SI units system, there are seven SI base units and three supplementary units. The base SI units are metre, kilogram, second, kelvin, ampere, candela and the mole and the three supplementary SI units are radian, steradian and becquerel. All other SI units can be derived from these base units.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Systems of measurement in modern use include the metric system, the imperial system, and United States customary units.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Historically many of the systems of measurement which had been in use were to some extent based on the dimensions of the human body. As a result, units of measure could vary not only from location to location but from person to person.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Metric systems of units have evolved since the adoption of the original metric system in France in 1791. The current international standard metric system is the International System of Units (abbreviated to SI). An important feature of modern systems is standardization. Each unit has a universally recognized size.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Both the imperial units and US customary units derive from earlier English units. Imperial units were mostly used in the British Commonwealth and the former British Empire. US customary units are still the main system of measurement used in the United States outside of science, medicine, many sectors of industry, and some of government and military, and despite Congress having legally authorised metric measure on 28 July 1866. Some steps towards US metrication have been made, particularly the redefinition of basic US and imperial units to derive exactly from SI units. Since the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 the US and imperial inch is now defined as exactly , and the US and imperial avoirdupois pound is now defined as exactly .


title: Unit of measurement

text: While the above systems of units are based on arbitrary unit values, formalised as standards, some unit values occur naturally in science. Systems of units based on these are called natural units. Similar to natural units, atomic units (au) are a convenient system of units of measurement used in atomic physics.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Also a great number of unusual and non-standard units may be encountered. These may include the solar mass (), the megaton (the energy released by detonating one million tons of trinitrotoluene, TNT) and the electronvolt.


title: Unit of measurement

text: To reduce the incidence of retail fraud, many national statutes have standard definitions of weights and measures that may be used (hence "statute measure"), and these are verified by legal officers.


title: Unit of measurement

text: In informal settings, a quantity may be described as multiples of that of a familiar entity, which can be easier to contextualize than a value in a formal unit system. For instance, a publication may describe an area in a foreign country as a number of multiples of the area of a region local to the readership. The propensity for certain concepts to be used frequently can give rise to loosely defined "systems" of units.


title: Unit of measurement

text: For most quantities a unit is necessary to communicate values of that physical quantity. For example, conveying to someone a particular length without using some sort of unit is impossible, because a length cannot be described without a reference used to make sense of the value given.


title: Unit of measurement

text: But not all quantities require a unit of their own. Using physical laws, units of quantities can be expressed as combinations of units of other quantities. Thus only a small set of units is required. These units are taken as the "base units" and the other units are "derived units". Thus base units are the units of the quantities which are independent of other quantities and they are the units of length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, luminous intensity and the amount of substance. Derived units are the units of the quantities which are derived from the base quantities and some of the derived units are the units of speed, work, acceleration, energy, pressure etc.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Different systems of units are based on different choices of a set of related units including fundamental and derived units.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Any value of a physical quantity is expressed as a comparison to a unit of that quantity. For example, the value of a physical quantity "Z" is expressed as the product of a unit ["Z"] and a numerical factor:


title: Unit of measurement

text: The multiplication sign is usually left out, just as it is left out between variables in the scientific notation of formulas. The convention used to express quantities is referred to as quantity calculus. In formulas the unit ["Z"] can be treated as if it were a specific magnitude of a kind of physical dimension: see "Dimensional analysis" for more on this treatment.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Units can only be added or subtracted if they are the same type; however units can always be multiplied or divided, as George Gamow used to explain. Let formula_4 be "2 candlesticks" and formula_5 "3 cabdrivers", then


title: Unit of measurement

text: A distinction should be made between units and standards. A unit is fixed by its definition and is independent of physical conditions such as temperature. By contrast, a standard is a physical realization of a unit and realizes that unit only under certain physical conditions. For example, a metre is a unit, while a metal bar is a standard. One metre is the same length regardless of temperature, but a metal bar will be exactly one metre long only at a certain temperature.


title: Unit of measurement

text: Conversion of units involves comparison of different standard physical values, either of a single physical quantity or of a physical quantity and a combination of other physical quantities.


title: Unit of measurement

text: replace the original unit formula_9 with its meaning in terms of the desired unit formula_10, e.g. if formula_11, then:


title: Unit of measurement

text: For example, you have an expression for a physical value "Z" involving the unit "feet per second" (formula_9) and you want it in terms of the unit "miles per hour" (formula_10):


title: Unit of measurement

text: Or as an example using the metric system, you have a value of fuel economy in the unit "litres per 100 kilometres" and you want it in terms of the unit "microlitres per metre":


title: Unit of measurement

text: One example of the importance of agreed units is the failure of the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter, which was accidentally destroyed on a mission to Mars in September 1999 instead of entering orbit due to miscommunications about the value of forces: different computer programs used different units of measurement (newton versus pound force). Considerable amounts of effort, time, and money were wasted.


title: Unit of measurement

text: On 15 April 1999, Korean Air cargo flight 6316 from Shanghai to Seoul was lost due to the crew confusing tower instructions (in metres) and altimeter readings (in feet). Three crew and five people on the ground were killed. Thirty-seven were injured.


title: Unit of measurement

text: In 1983, a Boeing 767 (which thanks to its pilot's gliding skills landed safely and became known as the Gimli Glider) ran out of fuel in mid-flight because of two mistakes in figuring the fuel supply of Air Canada's first aircraft to use metric measurements. This accident was the result of both confusion due to the simultaneous use of metric and Imperial measures and confusion of mass and volume measures.


title: Unit of measurement

text: When planning his journey across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1480s, Columbus mistakenly assumed that the mile referred to in the Arabic estimate of 56⅔ miles for the size of a degree was the same as the actually much shorter Italian mile of 1,480 metres. His estimate for the size of the degree and for the circumference of the Earth was therefore about 25% too small.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (in 2010 as a member of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team—"The Dream Team"—and in 2011 for his individual career).


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin played shooting guard and small forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1985 to 2001. During his college basketball career for the St. John's Redmen, he was named Big East Player of the Year three times and was a member of the 1984 U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball team, Mullin was chosen as the seventh pick by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft. He returned to the Olympics in 1992 as a member of the "Dream Team", which was the first American Olympic basketball team to include professional players.


title: Chris Mullin

text: He played with the Warriors from the 1985–86 until the 1996–97 season. Thereafter, Mullin played with the Indiana Pacers from 1997 until the 1999–2000 season. He retired after the 2000–01 season, playing for his original team, the Warriors. He later served as special advisor for the Sacramento Kings and general manager of the Golden State Warriors.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin was born in Brooklyn, New York. As a young player in New York, he studied the games of Knicks stars Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe while admiring Larry Bird and wearing #17 in honor of John Havlicek. As a youth, he regularly traveled to the Bronx and Harlem, in predominately black neighborhoods, to play against the best basketball players in New York City. His name began to spread while playing CYO basketball at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish on Flatlands Avenue. He was also a winner of the 1974 "Elks Hoops Shoot" which is a national free throw contest for youth.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Along with playing CYO basketball at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Mullin attended Lou Carnesecca's basketball camp with future Xaverian teammates Roger McCready, Danny Treacy, Jimmy Howard, Gerard Shepard, Mike O'Reilly, Joe Cannizzo and Pete Cannizzo.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin began his high school career at Power Memorial Academy, where he was a teammate of Mario Elie. He transferred as a junior to Xaverian High School and led them to a New York Class A state championship in 1981.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin was recruited by the Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca to play for St. John's University in nearby Queens. After signing, Mullin averaged 16.6 points per game in his freshman year (also setting the school freshman record for points scored). In his subsequent three years for the Redmen (now known as the Red Storm), he was named Big East Player of the Year three times, named to the All-America team three times, played for the gold medal-winning 1984 Olympic team, and received the 1985 Wooden Award and USBWA College Player of the Year.


title: Chris Mullin

text: As a senior who averaged 19.8 points per game, Mullin led St. John's to the 1985 Final Four and its first #1 ranking since 1951. Mullin, who averaged 19.5 points per game, finished his career as the Redmen's all-time leading scorer with 2,440 career points. He also holds the distinction of being one of only three players in history to win the Haggerty Award (given to the best college player in the New York City area) three times (1983–1985). From 1983 to 1985, Mullin was also named the Big East conference's player of the year, making him the only men's basketball player to receive this award three different seasons.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In the 1985 NBA draft, the Golden State Warriors selected Mullin in the first round with the seventh pick. In Mullin's first three seasons with the Warriors, he was primarily a spot-up shooting guard playing in the backcourt alongside Eric "Sleepy" Floyd.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In his second season, 1986–87, the Warriors advanced to the Western Conference semifinals under George Karl, where they lost to the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. The next season, Don Nelson became the Warriors' coach and had plans to move Mullin to small forward. During his third season in the NBA, Mullin admitted to Nelson that he was an alcoholic. After missing several practices, Mullin was suspended, then entered an alcohol rehabilitation program.


title: Chris Mullin

text: For five consecutive seasons, from 1988 until 1993, Mullin scored an average of 25 or more points and five rebounds. Additionally, the Warriors made five straight playoff appearances. Mullin, Mitch Richmond, and 1989 first-round draftee Tim Hardaway formed the trio "Run TMC" (the initials of the players' first names and a play on the name of the popular rap group Run–D.M.C.) that were the focal stars of this playoff run. A five-time All-Star, Mullin also won Olympic gold twice—as a member of the 1984 amateur team, and for the 1992 Dream Team.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In 1993, Nelson traded for Chris Webber on NBA Draft day, hoping to make the Warriors stronger in the frontcourt. Mullin's body began breaking down, and he began to miss significant numbers of games. The Warriors had a successful first season with Webber, but he and Nelson began to bicker over his use as a player. This led Nelson to resign, and subsequent coaches saw Mullin as injury-prone and began to center the team around Latrell Sprewell.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin was traded after the 1996–97 season to the Indiana Pacers for second-year center Erick Dampier and NBA journeyman Duane Ferrell.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In his first season with the Pacers, coached by Larry Bird, Mullin started all 82 games, averaged 11.3 points per game, and helped the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the Chicago Bulls in seven games. He had a career high in 3-point shots made (107) and led the NBA in free-throw percentage (.939) that season as well. Bird began to phase Mullin out and give more time to Jalen Rose at small forward during his second season with the team. As a member of the Indiana Pacers, Mullin, who was primarily a bench player at this time, appeared in three games of the 2000 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers and scored four points total. After that season, Mullin was waived by the Pacers.


title: Chris Mullin

text: According to Jim O'Brien, Mullin was similar to NBA legend Larry Bird because both players lacked speed, had a great outside shot and had the innate ability to put their defender off guard. He was on the All-NBA second team (1989 and 1991), third team (1990), and first team (1992).


title: Chris Mullin

text: During the 1992 Summer Olympics, Mullin, who started two games, averaged 12.9 points per game, shot 61.9% from the field and 53.8% from the three-point line. He was a member of the "Dream Team," which is widely regarded as one of the greatest sports teams ever.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin also won gold medals in the 1992 Tournament of the Americas with the "Dream Team", the 1984 Summer Olympics, the 1983 Pan American Games, the 1982 Jones Cup, and the 1982 Seoul Invitational.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In the 2018–19 season, his team reached the NCAA tournament as they went 21-13 and reached the First Four. The 21 wins matched their highest total since 1999–2000.


title: Chris Mullin

text: On April 9, 2019, Mullin resigned as head coach after compiling a 59–73 record in four seasons, including 20–52 in Big East play, citing a "personal loss" which was widely seen as the death of his brother.


title: Chris Mullin

text: After his playing days were over, Mullin was hired by the Warriors as a special assistant, dealing with daily business operations. On April 22, 2004, he was named Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the team. On May 11, 2009, the team announced that Mullin's expiring contract would not be renewed. He was replaced by Larry Riley as the Warriors' General Manager.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin began working with the Sacramento Kings in May 2013 when Vivek Ranadivé became owner. In September 2013, the Sacramento Kings hired him as an advisor. As an advisor, Mullin's duties were not only to provide advice to Ranadive and D'Alessandro on player transactions, but to also supervise the organization's college and overseas scouting program.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin has worked as an NBA analyst for ESPN. On October 22, 2010, Mullin made his network debut as an ESPN studio analyst on Kia NBA Countdown.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In December 2011, Mullin worked with the ESPN broadcasting crew for Mark Jackson's coaching debut with the Golden State Warriors. Mullin joined his former television colleagues, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen to announce the game against the Los Angeles Clippers in the season opener and Christmas finale.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In September 2019, after leaving St. John's University, Mullin was announced as a pregame and postgame studio analyst for Warriors games on NBC Sports Bay Area. He also will contribute to Warriors coverage on radio affiliate KNBR.


title: Chris Mullin

text: In 2010, Mullin was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the "Dream Team".


title: Chris Mullin

text: On April 4, 2011, Mullin was inducted again to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, this time for his individual career.


title: Chris Mullin

text: On March 19, 2012, Mullin's number 17 was retired by the Golden State Warriors, making him the sixth player in team history to have his jersey retired.


title: Chris Mullin

text: Mullin is a devout Roman Catholic, and has stated that he relies upon his faith daily. He and his wife, Elizabeth ("Liz"), live in Flower Hill, New York. They have four children. Mullin was very good friends with former teammate, Sudanese NBA player Manute Bol. After Bol was badly injured in a taxi cab incident in 2004, Mullin and the Warriors offered to raise money for Bol's medical bills by organizing a fantasy camp. On November 19, 2004, the Warriors, Mullin and his former teammates Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway participated in the fantasy camp named "Run With TMC".


title: Chris Mullin

text: In March 2012, PG&E joined the Golden State Warriors to restore a pair of basketball courts in Mullin's honor. Both courts were named the "Chris Mullin Basketball Courts at Arroyo Recreation Center Presented by PG&E".


title: Chris Mullin

text: In July 2014, Mullin was featured at a wheelchair basketball charity and opportunity event hosted in Puerto Rico by Max International. Before the event, he was presented a jersey from Federacion de Baloncesto en Silla de Ruedas de Puerto Rico (FEBASIRU), the local wheelchair basketball team. In this event, Mullin participated in a wheelchair basketball game for the very first time with Max International Associate Héctor Marcano Lopez and the local Puerto Rican wheelchair basketball team (FEBASIRU). He participated in "Max and Mullin Legends Classic Exhibition Game" with 20 local Puerto Rican basketball legends.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo (; born 13 June 1963) is a Congolese politician who has been the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 24 January 2019. He is the leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the DRC's oldest and largest party, succeeding his late father Étienne Tshisekedi in that role, a three-time Prime Minister of Zaire and opposition leader during the reign of Mobutu Sese Seko. Tshisekedi was the UDPS party's candidate for president in the December 2018 general election, which he was awarded, despite accusations of irregularities from several election monitoring organisations and other opposition parties. The Constitutional Court of the DRC upheld his victory after another opposition politician, Martin Fayulu, challenged the result, but Tshisekedi has been accused of making a deal with his predecessor, Joseph Kabila. The election marked the first peaceful transition of power since the state became independent from Belgium in 1960.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: Since the Common Front for Congo (FCC) coalition, which is aligned with Kabila, still controlled the parliament and provincial governorships, Tshisekedi's ability to govern or even appoint a new Prime Minister was limited for the first six months of his term. He named his coalition partner and political heavyweight, Vital Kamerhe, as his Chief of Cabinet, at first having designated him prime minister but not having the parliamentary support to get him appointed. In May 2019 he arrived at a deal with the parliament's Kabila-aligned majority to appoint Sylvestre Ilunga prime minister. On 27 July 2019, negotiations finally ended between Tshisekedi and the parliament, agreeing on the formation of a new cabinet.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: Tshisekedi, a member of the Luba ethnic group, was born in Kinshasa on 13 June 1963 to mother Marthe and father Étienne Tshisekedi, who served as Prime Minister of Zaire in the 1990s. He had a comfortable life as a youth in the capital, but when his father created the UDPS in the early 1980s, publicly opposing Mobutu, Félix was forced to accompany him into house arrest in his native village in central Kasaï. This put his studies on hold. In 1985, Mobutu allowed him, his mother, and his brothers to leave Kasaï. He went on to live in Brussels, Belgium, where he worked at odd jobs and became an active UDPS member.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: In late 2008, Tshisekedi was named the UDPS National Secretary for external relations. In November 2011, he obtained a seat in the National Assembly, representing the city of Mbuji Mayi in Kasai-Oriental province. He did not take his seat, citing a fraudulent election, and his mandate was invalidated for "absenteeism".


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: In May 2013, he refused a position of rapporteur at the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), saying that he did not want to put his political career on hold as CENI's article 17 excludes membership for those who are members of a political formation.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: In October 2016, Tshisekedi became vice secretary general of the UDPS. On 31 March 2018, he was elected to lead the UDPS, after his father's death on 1 February 2017. The same day, the UDPS nominated him for president in the December 2018 general election.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: On 10 January 2019, it was announced that Tshisekedi had won the presidency of the DRC in the December 2018 election. He defeated another opposition leader, Martin Fayulu, and Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who was supported by term-limited outgoing President Kabila, who had been president for 18 years. Fayulu, the runner-up, alleged rigging and challenged the election results. On 19 January, the Constitutional Court, dismissed the challenge, officially making Tshisekedi president-elect. He was sworn in as president on 24 January 2019, taking office the next day. This marked the first time since the Congo gained independence in 1960 that an incumbent president peacefully transferred power to the opposition.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: On 20 January, South Africa congratulated Tshisekedi on his election despite the African Union and EU warning of doubts over the result announced by the Constitutional Court. After Tshisekedi was sworn in, it was reported that a member of Kabila's coalition would be picked to serve as his Prime Minister.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: On 13 March 2019, Tshisekedi signed a decree to pardon approximately 700 prisoners, including imprisoned political opponents of Kabila, and this decision followed his promise to allow the return of exiles given the week before.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: In early 2019, negotiations were underway between Tshisekedi and Kabila's FCC coalition that controlled the National Assembly and Senate. In late April, "Jeune Afrique" reported that Kabila proposed to Tshisekedi the mining company executive Albert Yuma as a candidate for prime minister. Yuma supports the new Mining Code adopted in 2018, which put the DRC in dispute with international mining companies, and Tshisekedi has been under foreign pressure to not appoint him. The Civil Society of South Kivu recommended to Tshisekedi the appointment of his chief of staff Vital Kamerhe as prime minister. For months, Tshisekedi continued working with ministers of Kabila's government as he was hamstrung by parliament. He faced challenges in dealing with the Kivu conflict as well as the Ebola outbreak in the region. In early March, Tshisekedi started a program to improve infrastructure, transport, education, housing, communication, health, water, and agriculture.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: On 20 May 2019, Tshisekedi reached a deal with the FCC coalition and Kabila, appointing the career civil servant Sylvestre Ilunga as prime minister. Ilunga began his political career in the 1970s and held a number of cabinet posts under Mobutu Sese Seko before his overthrow in 1997. He is also an ally of Kabila. In late July 2019, Tshisekedi reached a deal with parliament on forming a new government. Ilunga's new cabinet would include 65 members, 48 ministers and 17 vice-ministers, which should be divided between the Kabila-aligned FCC and Tshisekedi's CACH alliance. The majority of the ministries went to the FCC, including three of the six most important ones (Defence, Justice, and Finance), while the Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Budget portfolios went to Tshisekedi's allies.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: After a power struggle saw the coalition with allies of Tshisekedi's predecessor break down and many legislators were won over, Ilunga was forced to leave office and Tshisekedi appointed Gécamines leader Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde as successor on 15 February 2021.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: On 12 April 2021, Tshisekedi formally ended his two-year coalition with Kabila and his allies when prime minister Sama Lukonde formed a new government. On national television, Tshisekedi’s spokesman Kasongo Mwema Yamba Yamba announced a number of new appointments, including Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi as mines minister. The president succeeded to oust the last remaining elements of his government who were loyal to Kabila.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: Tshisekedi has called for a review of mining contracts signed with China by his predecessor Joseph Kabila, especially the Sicomines multibillion 'minerals-for-infrastructure' deal. He has also promised to end and reverse deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 2030, in the COP26 climate summit's first major agreement.


title: Félix Tshisekedi

text: In October 2022, Tshisekedi ruled out bringing in Russian “mercenaries” to help quell a raging conflict in the east of the country and vowed to press on with economic development plans despite the insecurity in the region.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a 2001 science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the "Final Fantasy" franchise. It was the first photorealistic computer-animated feature film and the most expensive video game-inspired film until the release of "" in 2010. It features the voices of Ming-Na Wen, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Ving Rhames, Peri Gilpin and Steve Buscemi.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The film follows scientists Aki Ross and Doctor Sid in their efforts to free a post-apocalyptic Earth from a mysterious and deadly alien race, the Phantoms, which have driven the remnants of humanity into "barrier cities". Aki and Sid must fight against General Hein, who wants to use more violent means to end the conflict.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Square Pictures rendered the film using some of the most advanced processing capabilities available at the time. A render farm of 960 workstations was tasked with rendering each of the film's 141,964 frames. It took a staff of 200 about four years to complete "The Spirits Within". Square intended to make the character of Aki Ross into the world's first photorealistic computer-animated actress, with plans for appearances in multiple films in different roles.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: "The Spirits Within" premiered in Los Angeles on July 2, 2001, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 11. It received mixed reviews, but was widely praised for its characters' realism. Due to rising costs, the film greatly exceeded its original budget toward the end of production, reaching a final cost of $137 million (equivalent to $ million in ); it grossed only $85 million at the box office. The film has been called a box office bomb and is blamed for the demise of Square Pictures.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: In 2065, Earth is infested by alien life forms known as Phantoms. By physical contact Phantoms consume the Gaia spirit of living beings, killing them instantly, although minor contact may only result in an infection. The surviving humans live in "barrier cities" protected by energy shields that prevent Phantoms from entering, and are engaged in an ongoing struggle to free the planet. After being infected by a Phantom during one of her experiments, scientist Dr. Aki Ross (Ming-Na Wen) and her mentor, Dr. Sid (Donald Sutherland) discover a means of defeating the Phantoms by gathering eight spirits, unique energy patterns contained by various lifeforms. When joined, the resulting energy wave can negate the Phantoms. Aki searches for the sixth spirit in the ruins of New York City when she is cornered by Phantoms but rescued by Captain Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his squad Deep Eyes, consisting of Master Sergeant Ryan Whittaker (Ving Rhames), Neil Fleming (Steve Buscemi) and Corporal Jane Proudfoot (Peri Gilpin). It is revealed that Gray was once romantically involved with Aki.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Returning to her barrier city, Aki joins Sid and appears before the leadership council along with General Douglas Hein (James Woods). Hein is determined to use the Zeus cannon, a powerful weapon aboard a space station, to destroy the Phantoms, though Sid is concerned the cannon will damage Earth's Gaia (a spirit representing its ecosystem). Aki delays the use of the cannon by revealing that she has been infected and the collected spirits are keeping her infection stable, convincing the council that there may be another way to defeat the Phantoms. However, this revelation leads Hein to incorrectly conclude that she is being controlled by the Phantoms. Aki and the Deep Eyes squad succeed in finding the seventh spirit as Aki's infection begins to worsen and she slips into unconsciousness. Her dream reveals to her that the Phantoms are the spirits of dead aliens brought to Earth on a fragment of their destroyed planet. Sid uses the seventh spirit to bring Aki's infection back under control, reviving her.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: To scare the council into giving him clearance to fire the Zeus cannon, Hein lowers part of the barrier shield protecting the city. Though Hein intended that only a few Phantoms enter, his plan goes awry and legions of Phantoms invade the entire city. Aki, Sid and the Deep Eyes attempt to reach Aki's spaceship, their means of escape, but Ryan, Neil and Jane are killed by Phantoms. Hein escapes and boards the Zeus cannon's space station, where he finally receives authorization to fire the cannon.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Sid finds the eighth spirit at the crater site of the alien asteroid's impact on Earth at the Caspian Mountains. He lowers a shielded vehicle, with Aki and Gray aboard, into the crater to locate the final spirit. Just before they can reach it, Hein fires the Zeus cannon into the crater, not only destroying the eighth spirit but also revealing the Phantom Gaia. Aki has a vision of the Phantom home planet, where she is able to receive the eighth spirit from the alien particles in herself. When Aki awakens, she and Gray combine it with the other seven. Hein continues to fire the Zeus cannon despite overheating warnings and unintentionally destroys the cannon and himself. Gray sacrifices himself as a medium needed to physically transmit the completed spirit into the alien Gaia. The Earth's Gaia is returned to normal as the Phantoms ascend into space, finally at peace. Aki is pulled from the crater holding Gray's body, and is seen looking into the newly liberated world.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: From early on, it had been decided that "The Spirits Within" would be filmed entirely in English. The original script, written by Sakaguchi, was titled "Gaia". The screenplay was later rewritten by Al Reinert and Jeff Vintar. The film was co-directed by Motonori Sakakibara, with Jun Aida and Chris Lee both serving as producers. Lee compared "The Spirits Within", the first full-length photorealistic animated film, to Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the first full-length cel animated film. In order to keep the film in line with Hironobu Sakaguchi's vision as director, several script rewrites took place, most in the initial stages of production. It was reported in April 2000 that Square was partnering with Columbia Pictures on the film, making it the first animated feature Columbia had worked on since "" in 1986. Columbia was given the rights to distribute the film worldwide, with the exception of Asia.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: "The Spirits Within" was completed over a period of four-years, during which approximately 200 people put in a combined 120 years of work on it. The first 18 months of development were spent creating the in-house software SQFlesh, which plugged into the programs Autodesk Maya and RenderMan. The majority of the rest of production was spent on animation. Square accumulated four SGI Origin 2000 series servers, four Onyx2 systems, and 167 Octane workstations for the film's production. The basic film was rendered at a custom render farm created by Square in Hawaii. It housed 960 Pentium III-933 MHz workstations. Character movements were filmed using motion capture technology. Animator Matthew Hackett stated that while motion capture was effective for many of the scenes, in others animators still had to add movements manually. Hand and facial movements were all done manually. Some of General Hein's facial features and poses were based on Hackett. As animators did not want to use any actual photographs in the film, all backgrounds were done using matte paintings. 1,327 scenes in total needed to be filmed to animate the digital characters. The film consists of 141,964 frames, with each frame taking an average of 90 minutes to render. By the end of production Square had a total of 15 terabytes of artwork for the film.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Aki Ross's voice actor, Ming-Na Wen, was selected for a perceived fit between her personality and Aki's. Ming-Na, who found the role via her publicist, said she felt like she had given birth with her voice to the character. She gradually accustomed herself to the difficulty of working without the presence and spontaneity of real actors, and commented that the voice-acting work did not take much time, as she would just go into the studio "once or twice a month for about four months" with no need for make-up and costuming sessions. The workload was so light it did not interfere with her acting commitments in the television series "ER".


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Sakaguchi stated he was pleased with the film's final cut, saying he would not have changed anything if given the chance. The film had high cost overruns towards the end of filming. New funds had to be sourced to cover the increasing production costs while maintaining staff salaries. The film's final cost of $137 million, which included about $30 million spent on marketing by Columbia Pictures, escalated from an original budget rumored to be around $70 million. $45 million alone was spent on the construction of Square's studio in Hawaii.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Director Sakaguchi named the main character after his mother, Aki, who died in an accident several years prior to the production of the film. Her death led Sakaguchi to reflect on what happened to the spirit after death, and these thoughts resurfaced while he was planning the film, eventually taking the form of the Gaia hypothesis. He later explained that the theme he wanted to convey was "more of a complex idea of life and death and spirit", believing that the best way to portray this would be to set the film on Earth. By comparison, "Final Fantasy" video games are set in fictional worlds. Dan Mayers from "Sight & Sound" stated the film followed the same theme typically found in "Final Fantasy" video games: "A party of heroes averts impending global holocaust by drawing on their individual skills, gaining knowledge through challenges and emerging victorious with new-found love and respect for themselves and their companions." Writing in the book "Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams", Livia Monnet stated the film remediated "the notion of life in the neovitalistic, evolutionary biology of Lynn Margulis and in contemporary theories on artificial life", going on to state that the film's exploration of the Gaia hypothesis raised interesting questions regarding the life and death process of both cinema and digital media, as well as contemporary life sciences, cybernetics, philosophy and science fiction. The concept of artificial life and resurrection was also discussed, and compared to similar themes in the 1914 book "Locus Solus"; the Phantoms in "The Spirits Within" were considered to be brought to life by various forces: by the alien planet's red Gaia and then by human spiritual energy.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Each character's base body model was built from more than 100,000 polygons, plus more than 300,000 for clothing alone. Aki's character model bears 60,000 hairs, each of which were separately and fully animated and rendered. In creating the characters, designers had to transition between using PowerAnimator, Autodesk Maya and RenderMan.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Aki's appearance was conceived by the lead animator of the project, Roy Sato, who created several conceptual designs for Sakaguchi to consider, and then used the selected design as a guide for her character model. Sato perceived Aki's original look as a "supermodel", and subsequently removed her make-up and shortened her hair in order to give her a more intelligent look that would "convince people that she's a scientist." In an interview, Sato described actively trying to make her appear as realistic as possible, making her similar to himself in as many ways as he could in the animation, including elements of his personality through facial expressions. He concluded that Aki ended up being similar to him in almost every way, with the exception that "she's a lot cuter". The model for Aki was designed to closely follow human appearance, with Sakaguchi commenting in an interview "I think it's OK to look at Aki and be convinced that she's a human."


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: While Square ruled out any chance of a sequel to "The Spirits Within" before it was even completed, Sakaguchi intended to position Aki as being the "main star" for Square Pictures, using her in later games and films by Square, and including the flexibility of being able to modify aspects such as her age for such appearances. Ming-Na stated that she would be willing if asked to continue voicing Aki. Aki only made one appearance outside of the film; in 2002 she appeared in a demonstration video that Square Pictures made to present to The Wachowskis before developing "Final Flight of the Osiris" for "The Animatrix". The short film, appearing in the DVD's bonus content and featuring her with a slightly modified design, shows her acrobatically dueling a robot from the "Matrix" setting. Shortly afterwards, Square Pictures was closed and absorbed into Square, which ceased using the character.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The soundtrack to the film was released on July 3, 2001 by Sony Music. Elliot Goldenthal composed the entire score, as well as the film's theme song, "The Dream Within", which had lyrics written by Richard Rudolf and vocals performed by Lara Fabian. Director Hironobu Sakaguchi opted for the acclaimed Goldenthal instead of Nobuo Uematsu, the composer of the "Final Fantasy" games' soundtracks, a decision met with mixed opinions as the former was completely unknown to many of the games' fans. The last song on the album and the second and final song to play during the film's credits (after "The Dream Within") is "Spirit Dreams Inside" by Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The film's score was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with Belgian composer Dirk Brossé conducting. It was recorded in the United Kingdom at the Watford Coloseum and the London AIR Lyndhurst Hall and was mixed at the Manhattan Center Studios in the United States. In the liner notes to the album, Goldenthal describes the soundtrack as combining "orchestration techniques associated with the late 20th-century Polish avant-garde, as well as my own experiments from "Alien 3", and 19th-century Straussian brass and string instrumentation." In the film's 'Making of' featurette, Goldenthal states he used "ghostly choral" music when the Phantoms are emerging, in an attempt to give a celestial feeling, and focused on low brass clusters and taiko drum rhythms for violent scenes. When Aki talks about a dying girl, Goldenthal used a piano in order to give a domestic home-like feeling to a completely foreign environment, also choosing to use a flute each time Aki focusses on Gaia, as he believed it to be the most "human kind of instrument".


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The album was met with positive reviews. Neil Shurley from AllMusic, who gave the album 4 out of 5, stated the album would probably have been nominated for an Oscar if the film itself had been more popular, as did the reviewer from Soundtrack Express, who gave the soundtrack 5 out of 5. Christopher Coleman from Tracksounds gave the soundtrack 10 out of 10, stating the feel of the album was "expansive and majestic" and that the score elevated the viewing experience of the film. A review from "Filmtracks" gave the album 4 out of 5, calling it "an easy album to recommend", adding "parts of it will blow you out of your seat." Dan Goldwasser from Soundtrack.net also gave the soundtrack 4 out of 5, calling it a "must have".


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The album peaked at No. 19 on "Billboard"'s Top Soundtracks list and No. 193 on the "Billboard" 200 on July 28, 2001. The track "The Dream Within" was nominated for "Best Original Song Written for a Film" at the 2002 World Soundtrack Awards, but lost to "If I Didn't Have You" which was composed for "Monsters, Inc.".


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Before the film's release, there was already skepticism of its potential to be financially successful. Chris Taylor from "Time" magazine noted that video game adaptations had a poor track record at the box office and that it was Sakaguchi's first feature film. The film debuted on July 2, 2001 at the Mann Bruins Theater in Los Angeles, California, and was released in the United States on July 11, making $32 million in North America and selling 5,961,378 tickets in the United States. The film grossed $85 million in worldwide box office receipts, including in Japan. 1,456,523 tickets were sold in France, 4,299,604 tickets in other European countries and 446,728 tickets in Brazil. The film achieved average to poor results at the box office in most of Southeast Asia; however, it performed well in Australia, New Zealand and South Korea; 160,100 tickets were sold in Seoul City.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: In 2006, Boston.com regarded it as the 4th biggest box office bomb, estimating the film's losses at the end of its cinema run at over $94 million. In March 2012, CNBC considered it to be the 9th biggest box office bomb.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: "The Spirits Within" holds an approval rating of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 145 reviews, with an average rating of 5.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The movie raises the bar for computer animated movies, but the story is dull and emotionally removed." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gives the film a score of 49 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore on opening night gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" was a strong advocate of the film; he gave it 3½ stars out of four, praising it as a "technical milestone". While having some minor criticism of the plot, he concluded the reason to see the film was "simply, gloriously, to look at it", especially praising the realism in Aki's face. He also expressed a desire for the film to succeed in hopes of seeing others made in its image, though he was skeptical of its ability to be accepted. Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" echoed concerns about the plot, describing it as "adequate" though also stating it quickly slipped into cliche. He also had high praise for the animation in general, though lamented that the character's faces did not look quite real enough.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Writing in a 2007 article about the uncanny valley, John Mangan from "The Age" cited character's eyes in the film as an example of this phenomenon, where attempts to create realistic humans unintentionally cause revulsion; Peter Travers from "Rolling Stone" stated it was enjoyable watching the characters at first, "But then you notice a coldness in the eyes, a mechanical quality in the movements". Nell Minow from "Common Sense Media" also expressed concerns about realism in the characters, describing the visuals as stunning overall but finding subtle issues with characters talking and acting. Describing the dialogue as "passable", Nell also said the script read like a reject from "Pokémon", and that its "confusing gibberish about the earth's spirit [would] not do justice to the beliefs of environmentalists or pantheists". Todd McCarthy from "Variety" gave a positive review, praising the voice work and visuals though saying the characters were no more emotionally expressive than those in traditional animation. McCarthy described the acting as "no worse" than the majority of science-fiction films, also saying that as far as video game adaptation films went, "The Spirits Within" "sure beats ""."


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Aki's appearance was received positively by critics, with praise for the finer details of the character model such as the rendering of her hair. "Entertainment Weekly" named Aki an "it girl", stating that "Calling this action heroine a cartoon would be like calling a Rembrandt a doodle." Ruth La Ferla from "The New York Times" described her as having the "sinewy efficiency" of "Alien" franchise character Ellen Ripley and visual appeal of Julia Roberts' portrayal of Erin Brockovich. The book "Digital Shock: Confronting the New Reality" by Herve Fischer described her as a virtual actress having a "beauty that is 'really' impressive", comparing her to video game character Lara Croft. In contrast, Livia Monnet criticized her character as an example of the constantly kidnapped female in Japanese cinema, further "diluted" by her existence solely as a computer-generated character representing "an ideal, cinematic female character that has no real referent."


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Writing in the book "Action and Adventure Cinema", Marc O'Day described her as among the "least overtly eroticised" female characters in science fiction, though stated that Aki was "transformed in a variety of poses into an erotic fantasy machine" in a bikini photo shoot that was included on the DVD's special features. She appeared dressed in the bikini on the cover of "Maxim", and was ranked by the magazine and its readers as one of the sexiest women of 2001, placing at No. 87 out of 100 and becoming the first fictional woman to ever make the list. The same image of her appeared in the "Babes: The Girls of Sci Fi" special issue of "SFX".


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The merger between Square and Enix, which had been under consideration since at least 2000 according to Yasuhiro Fukushima, Enix chairman at the time, was delayed because of the failure of the film and Enix's hesitation at merging with a company that had just lost a substantial amount of money. Square Pictures announced in late January 2002 that they were closing down, largely due to the commercial failure of "The Spirits Within".


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The film's CGI effects have been compared favourably with those in later films, such as "Avatar" (2009). In 2011, BioWare art director Derek Watts cited "The Spirits Within" as a major influence on the successful "Mass Effect" series of action role-playing games. In the first episode of the Square Enix-published 2015 video game "Life Is Strange", when the lead character interacts with a TV, she mentions the idea of watching the film, and says "I don't care what anybody says, that's one of the best sci-fi films ever made."


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: Although the film was loosely based on a video game series, there were never any plans for a game adaptation of the film itself. Sakaguchi indicated the reason for this was the lack of powerful gaming hardware at the time, feeling the graphics in any game adaptation would be far too much of a step down from the graphics in the film itself. A novelization was written by Dean Wesley Smith and published by "Pocket Books" in June 2001. "The Making of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", a companion book, was published by "BradyGames" in August 2001. Edited by Steven L. Kent, the 240-page color book contains a foreword by director Sakaguchi and extensive information on all aspects of the film's creation, including concept art, storyboards, sets and props, layout, motion capture and animation, as well as a draft of the full script.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: The film won the "Jury Prize" at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival. It was nominated for "Best Sound Editing – Animated Feature Film, Domestic and Foreign" at the 49th Golden Reel Awards as well as "Best Animated Feature" at the 5th Online Film Critics Society awards. Conversely, the film was also nominated in the worst screenplay category at the 2001 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, but lost to "Pearl Harbor". The film's trailer was nominated for the "Golden Fleece" award at the 3rd Golden Trailer Awards.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: A two-disc DVD version of the film was released on October 23, 2001, with the Blu-ray edition released on August 7, 2007. Two weeks before it was released the DVD version was listed on Amazon.com as one of the most-anticipated releases, and it was expected to recoup some of the money lost on the film's disappointing box office performance. The DVD was initially a top seller; in February 2002, Jun Aida said that while sales were still strong, they were not good enough to save Square Pictures from closing. Both versions contained two full-length commentary tracks (one featuring Motonori Sakakibara, sequence supervisor Hiroyuki Hayashida, lead artist Tatsuro Maruyama, and creature supervisor Takoo Noguchi; the second featuring animation director Andy Jones, editor Chris S. Capp, and staging director Tani Kunitake) as well as an isolated score with commentary. They also contained a version of the film in its basic CGI and sketch form, with the option of pop-up comments on the film. An easter egg shows the cast of the film re-enacting the dance from "Michael Jackson's Thriller". Fifteen featurettes, including seven on character biographies, three on vehicle comparisons and an interactive "Making Of" featurette, were also included. Other features included Aki's dream viewable as a whole sequence, the film's original opening sequence, and intentional outtakes. Peter Bracke from "High-Def Digest" stated the DVD was "so packed with extras it was almost overwhelming", stating that Sony went "all-out" on the extra features in a likely attempt to boost DVD sales and recover losses. A single-disc edition of the film with significantly less special features was released on August 27, 2002.


title: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

text: As of December 13, 2001, the film grossed in video rental revenue in the United States, equivalent to 83.4% of its box office gross in the country. The DVD was nominated for "Best DVD Special Edition Release" at the 28th Saturn Awards. Aaron Beierle from "DVD Talk" gave a positive review of the DVD, rating it 4½ out of 5 stars for audio quality, video quality and special features. Dustin Somner from "Blu-ray.com" gave the Blu-ray version 5 out of 5 stars for video quality and special features, and 4½ stars for audio quality. Peter Bracke gave the Blu-ray version 4 out of 5 stars overall. The film was released in 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray in November 2021, with improved audio to Dolby Atmos/TrueHD 7.1 channel format.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 19.6 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located from the city's downtown area and has 22 airlines that offer nearly 500 daily departures to more than 130 destinations worldwide.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Philadelphia International Airport is the largest airport serving the state of Pennsylvania. It is the fifth-largest hub for American Airlines and its primary hub for the Northeastern United States, as well as its primary European and transatlantic gateway. Additionally, the airport is a regional cargo hub for UPS Airlines and a focus city for the ultra low-cost airline Frontier Airlines.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: The airport has service to cities in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. As of summer 2019, there are flights from the airport to 140 destinations, 102 domestic and 38 international. Most of the airport property is in Philadelphia proper. The international terminal and the western end of the airfield are in Tinicum Township, Delaware County. PHL covers and has four runways.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Philadelphia International Airport is important component of the economies of Philadelphia, the Delaware Valley metropolitan region to which it belongs, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth's Aviation Bureau reported in its Pennsylvania Air Service Monitor that the total economic impact made by the state's airports in 2004 was $22 billion. In 2017, PHL commissioned a new economic impact report. The report found PHL alone accounted for $15.4 billion in activity with over 96,000 direct and indirect jobs with $5.4 billion in total earnings. In October 2022, PHL gained a direct connection to a Colonial Pipeline fuel supply.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Starting in 1925, the Pennsylvania National Guard used the present airport site (known as Hog Island) as a training airfield. The site was dedicated as the "Philadelphia Municipal Airport" by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, but it had no proper terminal building until 1940; airlines used Camden Central Airport in nearby Pennsauken Township, New Jersey. Once Philadelphia's terminal was completed (on the east side of the field) American, Eastern, TWA and United moved their operations here.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: In 1947 and 1950 the airport had runways 4, 9, 12 and 17, all or less. In 1956 runway 9 was ; in 1959 it was and runway 12 was closed. Not much changed until the early 1970s, when runway 4 was closed and 9R opened with .


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: On June 20, 1940, the airport's weather station became the official point for Philadelphia weather observations and records by the National Weather Service.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: During World War II the United States Army Air Forces used the airport as a First Air Force training airfield.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Beginning in 1940, Rising Sun School of Aeronautics of Coatesville performed primary flight training at the airport under contract to the Air Corps. After the Pearl Harbor Attack, the I Fighter Command Philadelphia Fighter Wing provided air defense of the Delaware Valley area from the airport. Throughout the war, various fighter and bomber groups were organized and trained at Philadelphia airport and assigned to the Philadelphia Fighter Wing before being sent to advanced training airfields or being deployed overseas. Known units assigned were the 33d, 58th, 355th and 358th Fighter Groups.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: In June 1943 I Fighter Command transferred jurisdiction of the airport to the Air Technical Service Command (ATSC). ATSC established a sub-depot of the Middletown Air Depot at the airport. The 855th Army Air Forces Specialized Depot unit repaired and overhauled aircraft and returned them to active service, and the Army Air Forces Training Command established the Philco Training School on January 1, 1943, which trained personnel in radio repair and operations.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: In 1945 the Air Force reduced its use of the airport and it was returned to civil control that September.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Philadelphia Municipal became Philadelphia International in 1945, when American Overseas Airlines began direct flights to Europe. (For a short time AOA's flights skipped the New York stop; that was probably Philadelphia's only international nonstop until Pan Am tried nonstops to Europe in 1961.) A new terminal opened in December 1953; the oldest parts of the present terminal complex (B and C) were built in the late 1950s.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: The April 1957 OAG shows 30 weekday departures on Eastern, 24 TWA, 24 United, 18 American, 16 National, 14 Capital, 6 Allegheny and 3 Delta. To Europe, five Pan Am DC-6Bs a week via Idlewild and Boston and two TWA 749As a week via Idlewild; one TWA flight continued to Ceylon. Eastern and National had nonstops to Miami, but the TWA 1049G to LAX that started in 1956 was the only nonstop beyond Chicago. The first scheduled jets were TWA 707s in summer 1959.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Terminal B/C modernization was completed in 1970, Terminal D opened in 1973 and Terminal E in 1977; the $300 million expansion was designed by Arnold Thompson Associates, Inc. and Vincent G. Kling & Associates.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: In the 1980s PHL hosted several hubs. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 allowed regional carrier Altair Airlines to create a small hub at PHL using Fokker F-28s. Altair began in 1967 with flights to cities such as Rochester, New York, Hartford, Connecticut and to Florida until it ceased operations in November 1982. In the mid-1980s Eastern Air Lines opened a hub in Concourse C. The airline declined in the late 1980s and sold aircraft and gate leases to Chicago-based Midway Airlines. Midway operated its Philadelphia hub until it ceased operation in 1991. During the 1980s US Airways (then called USAir) built a hub at PHL.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: US Airways became the dominant carrier at PHL in the 1980s and 1990s and shifted most of its hub operations from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in 2003. As of 2013, PHL was US Airways' largest international hub and its second-largest hub overall behind Charlotte. PHL became an American Airlines hub after it completed its merger with US Airways in 2015 and remains one of the airline's biggest hubs, offering an average of 420 departing flights per day to over 100 destinations. In recent years, American has opted to continue expanding at PHL while downsizing its hub at JFK in New York due to greater slot availability, lower operation costs in Philadelphia, and its greater network of connecting flights.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: In July 1999 the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and several U.S. federal government agencies selected a route for the connecting ramps from Interstate 95 to the Terminal A-West complex, then under development; the agency tried to avoid the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. K/B Fund II, the owner of the International Plaza complex, formerly the Scott Paper headquarters Scott Plaza, objected to the proposed routing, saying it would interfere with International Plaza development. It entered a filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to challenge the proposed routing. In 2000, the airport attempted to acquire the complex for $90 million but Tinicum Township commissioners stopped the deal from going forward, citing concerns of a loss of tax revenue for the township and the Interboro School District, which serves Tinicum, as well as noise pollution concerns.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: In 2002 construction on the controversial new entrance ramps went forward. The new ramps eliminated the traffic signal and stop intersections previously encountered by northbound I-95 motorists who had to use Route 291 to the airport. The project consisted of six new bridges, more than 4,300 linear feet of retaining walls, and 7.7 lane miles of new pavement. The project also included new highway lighting, overhead sign structures, landscaping and the paving of Bartram Avenue. Also under the project, PennDOT resurfaced I-95 between Route 420 and Island Avenue and built a truck enforcement and park-and-ride facility. In 2003 Terminal A-West opened, with a 1,500-space parking garage. Construction of the terminal was funded by airport revenue bonds sold by the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: By 2005 two studies dealt with expanding runway capacity at PHL: the Runway 17–35 Extension Project EIS and the PHL Capacity Enhancement Program EIS. Completed in May 2009, the Runway 17-35 Extension Project extended runway 17–35 to a length of , extending it at both ends and incorporating the proper runway safety areas. Other changes made with the Runway 17–35 Extension Project included additional taxiways and aprons, relocation of perimeter service roads, and modifications to nearby public roads.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: The status of Philadelphia as an international gateway and major hub for American Airlines and the growth of Southwest Airlines and other low-cost carriers have increased passenger traffic to record levels in the mid-2000s; in 2004 28,507,420 passengers flew through Philadelphia, up 15.5% over 2003. In 2005, 31,502,855 passengers flew through PHL, marking a 10% increase since 2004. In 2006, 31,768,272 passengers travelled through PHL, a 0.9% increase.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: US Airways commenced a nonstop link between Philadelphia and the Middle East in July 2009, operating an Airbus A330 service to Tel Aviv. Following the merger with American Airlines, the latter carrier continued to fly the route. However, the flight never performed well financially, leading American Airlines to end it in early 2016.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: At 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) in length, runway 9R/27L (previously 10,506 feet) is the longest civil runway in Pennsylvania.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: In 2011, a nearly 85,000-square-foot mural was completed along the sides of the airport parking garages that face I-95. The design includes images taken from photographs of Philadelphians dancing by local photographer JJ Tiziou. More than 800 people painted the mural over four months.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Philadelphia International Airport has six terminals with a total of 126 gates. Non pre-cleared international arrivals are processed in Terminal A. American operates Admirals Clubs in Terminal A, the B/C connector and Terminal F. Terminal A also contains a British Airways Galleries Lounge as well as a American Express Centurion Lounge. Terminal D contains a United Club as well as a Delta Sky Club. A USO lounge is located in Terminal E.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Terminal A is divided into two sections, east and west. Terminal A West has 13 gates, while Terminal A East has 11 gates. Terminal A West has a modern and innovative design, made by Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pierce Goodwin Alexander & Linville and Kelly/Maiello. Opened in 2003 as the new international terminal, it is now home to American (domestic and international), British Airways, Lufthansa, and Qatar Airways. It offers a variety of international dining options. International Arrivals (except from locations with Customs preclearance) arrive at gates in both Terminal A east and west and are processed at the Terminal A West arrival building.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Terminal A East, originally the airport's international terminal, is now used by Aer Lingus and American domestic and international flights as well as international arrivals for Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines. A-East is well maintained and recently received an upgrade to its baggage claim facilities. Most of the gates in this terminal are equipped to handle international arrivals and the passengers are led to the customs facility in Terminal A West. It opened in 1990. The security entrance was significantly enlarged in 2012.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: There are three lounges along the corridor between Terminal A East and A West; an American Airlines Admirals Club, British Airways Galleries Lounge and American Express Centurion Lounge. The east terminal also contains an Admirals Club. There is also a children's play area located in the east terminal.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Terminals B and C have 15 and 14 gates respectively. They are the two main terminals used by American. They were renovated at a cost of $135 million in 1998, which was designed by DPK&A Architects, LLP. They are connected by a shopping mall and food court named the Philadelphia Marketplace. Remodeling was recently done in the gate areas, although these cosmetic changes will not solve the space problems at many of the gates. Overall, the facilities are fairly modern and dining options on the concourses are also available. They are the oldest terminals and opened in 1953. There is an American Airlines Admirals Club located in the B/C connector.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Terminal D has 16 gates; it opened in 1973. The terminal was upgraded in late 2008 with a new concourse connecting to Terminal E while providing combined security, a variety of shops and restaurants and a link between Baggage Claims D and E. This is the inverse of the connector between Terminals B and C, which comprises a combined ticket hall but separate security facilities. Terminal D is home to Air Canada, Delta, Spirit (Check In Only with Gates in Terminal E) and United. This terminal is connected to the shopping area of Terminals B/C through a post-security walkway. The terminal contains a United Club and a Delta Sky Club.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Terminal E has 17 gates. It is home to Alaska Airlines (Check In Only Departures from D6), Frontier, JetBlue (Check In Only as of 2022), and Southwest. It opened in 1977. Terminal E houses a USO lounge available for all members of the military and their family.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Terminal F has 38 gates. The terminal is a regional terminal used by American Eagle and Contour Airlines flights. It includes special jet bridges that allow passengers to board regional jets without walking on the apron. Opened in 2001, Terminal F is the second newest terminal building at PHL. It was designed by Odell Associates, Inc. and The Sheward Partnership. An American Airlines Admirals Club is located above the central food court area of Terminal F.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: SEPTA Regional Rail's Airport Line serves stations at Terminals A, B, C, D, and E. The four stations are Airport Terminal A East/West, Airport Terminal B, Airport Terminals C & D, and Airport Terminals E & F. The stations are next to the baggage claim at each terminal with escalator and elevator access from each terminal's skywalk. The Airport Line connects to Center City Philadelphia, other SEPTA trains, Amtrak trains, and NJ Transit trains at 30th Street Station. The Airport Line runs through Center City Philadelphia to Glenside, Pennsylvania; half of the trains continue to Warminster, Pennsylvania, on the Warminster Line while the other half of weekday trains diverge past Wayne Junction to continue to Fox Chase, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the Fox Chase Line and the other half of weekend/holiday trains terminate at Glenside. The Airport Line runs 5:00 a.m. to midnight daily, with trains every 30 minutes on weekdays and every hour or weekends and holidays. The ride from the airport to Center City Philadelphia takes 25 minutes.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: Philadelphia International Airport has road access from an interchange with I-95 (exit 12 northbound and exit 12A southbound), which heads north toward Center City Philadelphia and south into Delaware County. PA 291 heads northeast from the airport area and provides access to and from I-76 (Schuylkill Expressway). Rental cars are available through a number of companies; each operates a shuttle bus between its facility and the terminals. As part of the airport's expansion plan, the airport plans to construct a consolidated rental car facility. Taxis and ride-sharing services both serve the airport.


title: Philadelphia International Airport

text: SEPTA has various bus routes to the airport: Route 37 (serving South Philadelphia and Chester Transportation Center), Route 108 (serving 69th Street Transportation Center and the UPS air hub), and Route 115 (serving Delaware County Community College and Darby Transportation Center). As a benefit to students, local colleges and universities including The University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, Swarthmore College, Haverford College and Saint Joseph's University traditionally operate transportation shuttles to the airport during heavy travel periods such as spring and Thanksgiving breaks.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured cars, assault guns, self-propelled guns, infantry fighting vehicles, and armoured personnel carriers.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their characteristics and intended role on the battlefield. The classifications are not absolute; two countries may classify the same vehicle differently, and the criteria change over time. For example, relatively lightly armed armoured personnel carriers were largely superseded by infantry fighting vehicles with much heavier armament in a similar role.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Successful designs are often adapted to a wide variety of applications. For example, the MOWAG Piranha, originally designed as an APC, has been adapted to fill numerous roles such as a mortar carrier, infantry fighting vehicle, and assault gun.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Armoured fighting vehicles began to appear in use in World War I with the armoured car, the tank, the self-propelled gun, and the personnel carrier seeing use. By World War II, armies had large numbers of AFVs, together with other vehicles to carry troops this permitted highly mobile manoeuvre warfare.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The concept of a highly mobile and protected fighting unit has been around for centuries; from Hannibal's war elephants to Leonardo's contraptions, military strategists endeavoured to maximize the mobility and survivability of their soldiers.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Armoured fighting vehicles were not possible until internal combustion engines of sufficient power became available at the start of the 20th century.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Modern armoured fighting vehicles represent the realization of an ancient concept – that of providing troops with mobile protection and firepower. Armies have deployed war machines and cavalries with rudimentary armour in battle for millennia. Use of these animals and engineering designs sought to achieve a balance between the conflicting paradoxical needs of mobility, firepower and protection.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Siege engines, such as battering rams and siege towers, would often be armoured in order to protect their crews from enemy action. Polyidus of Thessaly developed a very large movable siege tower, the "helepolis", as early as 340 BC, and Greek forces used such structures in the Siege of Rhodes (305 BC).


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The idea of a protected fighting vehicle has been known since antiquity. Frequently cited is Leonardo da Vinci's 15th-century sketch of a mobile, protected gun-platform; the drawings show a conical, wooden shelter with apertures for cannons around the circumference. The machine was to be mounted on four wheels which would be turned by the crew through a system of hand cranks and cage (or "lantern") gears. Leonardo claimed: "I will build armoured wagons which will be safe and invulnerable to enemy attacks. There will be no obstacle which it cannot overcome." Modern replicas have demonstrated that the human crew would have been able to move it over only short distances.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Hussite forces in Bohemia developed war wagons – medieval horse-drawn wagons that doubled as wagon forts – around 1420 during the Hussite Wars. These heavy wagons were given protective sides with firing slits; their heavy firepower came from either a cannon or from a force of hand-gunners and crossbowmen, supported by light cavalry and infantry using pikes and flails. Heavy arquebuses mounted on wagons were called "arquebus à croc". These carried a ball of about .


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The first modern AFVs were armed cars, dating back virtually to the invention of the motor car. The British inventor F.R. Simms designed and built the Motor Scout in 1898. It was the first armed, petrol-engine powered vehicle ever built. It consisted of a De Dion-Bouton quadricycle with a Maxim machine gun mounted on the front bar. An iron shield offered some protection for the driver from the front, but it lacked all-around protective armour.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The armoured car was the first modern fully armoured fighting vehicle. The first of these was the Simms' Motor War Car, also designed by Simms and built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim in 1899. The vehicle had Vickers armour 6 mm thick and was powered by a four-cylinder 3.3-litre 16 hp Cannstatt Daimler engine giving it a maximum speed of around . The armament, consisting of two Maxim guns, was carried in two turrets with 360° traverse.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Another early armoured car of the period was the French Charron, Girardot et Voigt 1902, presented at the "Salon de l'Automobile et du cycle" in Brussels, on 8 March 1902. The vehicle was equipped with a Hotchkiss machine gun, and with 7 mm armour for the gunner. Armoured cars were first used in large numbers on both sides during World War I as scouting vehicles.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: In 1903, H. G. Wells published the short story "The Land Ironclads," positing indomitable war machines that would bring a new age of land warfare, the way steam-powered ironclad warships had ended the age of sail.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Wells' literary vision was realized in 1916, when, amidst the pyrrhic standstill of the Great War, the British Landship Committee, deployed revolutionary armoured vehicles to break the stalemate. The tank was envisioned as an armoured machine that could cross ground under fire from machine guns and reply with its own mounted machine guns and naval artillery. These first British tanks of World War I moved on caterpillar tracks that had substantially lower ground pressure than wheeled vehicles, enabling them to pass the muddy, pocked terrain and slit trenches of the Battle of the Somme.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The tank eventually proved highly successful and, as technology improved, it became a weapon that could cross large distances at much higher speeds than supporting infantry and artillery. The need to provide the units that would fight alongside the tank led to the development of a wide range of specialised AFVs, especially during the Second World War (1939–1945).


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The armoured personnel carrier, designed to transport infantry troops to the frontline, emerged towards the end of World War I. During the first actions with tanks, it had become clear that close contact with infantry was essential in order to secure ground won by the tanks. Troops on foot were vulnerable to enemy fire, but they could not be transported in the tank because of the intense heat and noxious atmosphere. In 1917, Lieutenant G.J. Rackham was ordered to design an armoured vehicle that could fight and carry troops or supplies. The Mark IX tank was built by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., although just three vehicles had been finished at the time of the Armistice in November 1918, and only 34 were built in total.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Different tank classifications emerged in the interwar period. The tankette was conceived as a mobile, two-man model, mainly intended for reconnaissance. In 1925, Sir John Carden and Vivian Loyd produced the first such design to be adopted – the Carden Loyd tankette. Tankettes saw use in the Royal Italian Army during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935–1936), the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and almost everywhere Italian soldiers fought during World War II. The Imperial Japanese Army used tankettes for jungle warfare.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The British Gun Carrier Mark I, the first Self-propelled artillery, was fielded in 1917. It was based on the first tank, the British Mark I, and carried a heavy field-gun. The next major advance was the Birch gun (1925), developed for the British motorised warfare experimental brigade (the Experimental Mechanized Force). This mounted a field gun, capable of the usual artillery trajectories and even anti-aircraft use, on a tank chassis.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: During World War II, most major military powers developed self-propelled artillery vehicles. These had guns mounted on a tracked chassis (often that of an obsolete or superseded tank) and provided an armoured superstructure to protect the gun and its crew. The first British design, "Bishop", carried the 25 pdr gun-howitzer in an extemporised mounting on a tank chassis that severely limited the gun's performance. It was replaced by the more effective Sexton. The Germans built many lightly armoured self-propelled anti-tank guns using captured French equipment (for example Marder I), their own obsolete light tank chassis (Marder II), or ex-Czech chassis (Marder III). These led to better-protected tank destroyers, built on a medium-tank chassis such as the Jagdpanzer IV or the Jagdpanther.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: The Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon debuted in WWI. The German 88 mm anti-aircraft gun was truck-mounted and used to great effect against British tanks, and the British QF 3-inch 20 cwt was mounted on trucks for use on the Western Front. Although the Birch gun was a general purpose artillery piece on an armoured tracked chassis, it was capable of elevation for anti-aircraft use. Vickers Armstrong developed one of the first SPAAGs based on the chassis of the Mk.E 6-ton light tank/Dragon Medium Mark IV tractor, mounting a Vickers QF-1 "Pom-Pom" gun of 40 mm. The Germans fielded the Sd.Kfz. 10/4 and 6/2, cargo halftracks mounting single 20 mm or 37 mm AA guns (respectively) by the start of the war.


title: Armoured fighting vehicle

text: Rocket launchers such as the Soviet Katyusha originated in the late 1930s. The Wehrmacht fielded self-propelled rocket artillery in World War II – the Panzerwerfer and Wurfrahmen 40 equipped half-track armoured fighting vehicles. Many modern multiple rocket launchers are self propelled by either truck or tank chassis.