title: Kung Fu Yoga

text: They reach an underground Shiva temple made out of gold that is nearby a secluded waterfall. Reaching there, Randall's group begins to extract gems and diamonds from the temple decorations and searches for the treasure, but to his despair, they find that the legendary treasure is ancient knowledge about medicine, Buddhism, mechanical structures, and many more. In despair, Randall tries to destroy everything, but Jack, Ashmita and their team fight to stop them. Jack uses principles of yoga and kung fu to defeat Randall and convinces him of the significant importance of this finding. Meanwhile, a group of Sannyasis comes down through the new opening above ground and, upon seeing the magnificence of the deity in the underground temple, they start to sing and dance in joy. The groups that were fighting, realizing their pettiness, stop fighting and happily join with the joyous expression.


title: Kung Fu Yoga

text: Principal photography began in Beijing in September, before moving to Xi'an and Dubai on 27 September and ended on 30 October. Filming then continued in Beijing and India in December. Filming also took place in Iceland.


title: Kung Fu Yoga

text: The film originally began as a Sino-Indian co-production. However, its Indian production partner Viacom 18 eventually pulled out of the production. Viacom 18 stated: "We had every intent to collaborate with ‘Kung Fu Yoga.’ However things didn't work out as planned. But we are optimistic about more such partnerships in the future."


title: Kung Fu Yoga

text: According to director Stanley Tong, Bollywood star Aamir Khan was initially offered a major role in the film, but he could not take up the offer due to scheduling conflicts, as he was busy shooting for his own film, the blockbuster "Dangal" (2016). The ending dance number in "Kung Fu Yoga" was choreographed by Bollywood musical dance choreographer Farah Khan.


title: Kung Fu Yoga

text: "Kung Fu Yoga" was released in China on 28 January 2017. It was released in the Philippines by Star Cinema (replacing Viva International Pictures as distributor) on 1 February 2017. In India, the film was released by Tanweer Films on 3 February 2017.


title: Kung Fu Yoga

text: The film was a major box-office success in China, where it became Jackie Chan's highest-grossing film in China and one of the top ten highest-grossing films of all time, grossing ¥1.753billion (US$254,531,595). In comparison, it was a commercial failure in India, where it grossed on its opening day. The film opened at number 1 in Singapore, earning $1.85 million, during its weekend debut of 28 January 2017.


title: Kung Fu Yoga

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a score of 48%, based on 23 critics' reviews. On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Nicolas Jack Roeg (; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing "Performance" (1970), "Walkabout" (1971), "Don't Look Now" (1973), "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976), "Bad Timing" (1980), and "The Witches" (1990).


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Making his directorial debut 23 years after his entry into the film business, Roeg quickly became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterized by the use of disjointed and disorienting editing. For this reason, he is considered a highly influential filmmaker, cited as an inspiration by such directors as Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, and Danny Boyle.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: In 1999, the British Film Institute acknowledged Roeg's importance in the British film industry by respectively naming "Don't Look Now" and "Performance" the 8th and 48th greatest British films of all time in its Top 100 British films poll.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Roeg was born in St John's Wood in North London on 15 August 1928 to Jack Nicolas Roeg and Mabel Gertrude (née Silk). He had an older sister, Nicolette (1925-1987), who was an actress. His father was of Dutch ancestry and worked in the diamond trade, but lost a lot of money when his investments failed in South Africa. Roeg had said that he entered the film industry only because there was a studio across the road from his home in Marylebone. Roeg was educated at the Mercers' School in London.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: In 1947, after completing National Service, Roeg entered the film business as a tea boy moving up to clapper-loader, the bottom rung of the camera department, at Marylebone Studios in London. For a time, he worked as a camera operator on a number of film productions, including "The Sundowners" and "The Trials of Oscar Wilde".


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: He was a second-unit cinematographer on David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) and this led to Lean's hiring Roeg as cinematographer on his next film, "Doctor Zhivago" (1965); however, Roeg's creative vision clashed with that of Lean and eventually he was fired from the production and replaced by Freddie Young, who received sole credit for cinematography when the film was released in 1965. He was credited as cinematographer on Roger Corman's "The Masque of the Red Death" and François Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451", as well as John Schlesinger's "Far from the Madding Crowd" and Richard Lester's "Petulia"; the latter is the last film on which Roeg was solely credited for cinematography and also shares many characteristics and similarities with Roeg's work as a director.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: In the late 1960s, Roeg moved into directing with "Performance", alongside Donald Cammell. The film centres on an aspiring London gangster (James Fox) who moves in with a reclusive rock star (Mick Jagger) to evade his bosses. The film featured cinematography by Roeg and a screenplay by Cammell, the latter of whom had favoured Marlon Brando for the James Fox role. The film was completed in 1968 but withheld from release by its distributor Warner Bros. who, according to Sanford Lieberson, "didn't think it was releasable." The film was eventually released with an X-rating in 1970 and, despite its initial poor reception, has come to be held in high esteem by critics due to its cult following.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: He followed up with "Walkabout", which tells the story of an English teenage girl and her younger brother who are abandoned in the Australian Outback by their father on his suicide and forced to fend for themselves, with the help of an Aboriginal boy on his walkabout. Roeg cast Jenny Agutter in the role of the girl, his own son Luc as the boy, and David Gulpilil as the Aboriginal boy. It was widely praised by critics despite lack of commercial success.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: His next film, "Don't Look Now", is based on Daphne du Maurier's short story of the same name and starred Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as a married couple in Venice mourning the death of their daughter who had drowned. It attracted scrutiny early on due to a sex scene between Sutherland and Christie, which was unusually explicit for the time. Roeg's decision to inter-cut the sexual intercourse with shots of the couple dressing afterwards was reportedly due to the need to assuage the fears of the censors and there were rumours at the time of its release that the sex was unsimulated. The film was widely praised by critics and considered one of the most important and influential horror films ever made.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Similarly to "Performance", he cast musicians in leading roles for his next two films, "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and "Bad Timing". "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976) stars David Bowie as a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to collect water for his planet, which is suffering from a drought. The film divided critics and was truncated upon its U.S. release. Despite this, it was entered into the Berlin International Film Festival where Roeg was nominated for the Golden Bear. It is today considered an important science fiction film and is one of Roeg's most celebrated films. "Bad Timing" was released in 1980 and stars Art Garfunkel as an American psychiatrist living in Vienna who develops a love affair with a fellow expatriate (played by Theresa Russell, to whom Roeg was later married), which culminates in the latter being rushed to hospital due to an incident the nature of which is revealed over the course of the film. At first, it was disliked by critics, as well as by the Rank Organisation, its distributor, who allegedly described it as "a sick film made by sick people for sick people." Rank requested that their logo be taken off the finished film.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: "Bad Timing" marked the beginning of a three-film partnership with Jeremy Thomas. The second of these films "Eureka" (1983) is loosely based on the true story of Sir Harry Oakes; it received a largely limited release both theatrically and on home video. It was followed up with "Insignificance", which imagines a meeting between Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Monroe's second husband Joe DiMaggio, and Senator Joseph McCarthy. "Insignificance" was screened in competition at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, with the film being selected to compete for the Palme d'Or.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: In 1986, Roeg was approached by then Secretary of State for Health and Social Services Norman Fowler and the advertising agency TBWA to direct the British government's public health campaign "".


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: His next two films, "Castaway" and "Track 29", are considered minor entries in his oeuvre. Roeg was selected to direct an adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel "The Witches" by Jim Henson, who had procured the film rights to the book in 1983. This would prove to be his last major studio film and proved a great success with critics, although it was a box-office failure. Roeg made only three theatrical films following "The Witches": "Cold Heaven" (1992), "Two Deaths" (1995), and "Puffball" (2007). Roeg also did a small amount of work for television, including "Sweet Bird of Youth", an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play, and "Heart of Darkness".


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Roeg's films are known for having scenes and images from the plot presented in a disarranged fashion, out of chronological and causal order, requiring the viewer to do the work of mentally rearranging them to comprehend the story line. They seem to "shatter reality into a thousand pieces" and are "unpredictable, fascinating, cryptic, and liable to leave you wondering what the hell just happened..." This is also the strategy of Richard Lester's 1968 film "Petulia", which was Roeg's last film as a cinematographer only. A characteristic of Roeg's films is that they are edited in disjunctive and semi-coherent ways that make full sense only in the film's final moments, when a crucial piece of information surfaces; they are "mosaic-like montages [filled with] elliptical details which become very important later."


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: These techniques, along with Roeg's foreboding sense of atmosphere, influenced later such filmmakers as Steven Soderbergh, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, François Ozon, and Danny Boyle. In addition to this, Christopher Nolan has said his film "Memento" would have been "pretty unthinkable" without Roeg and cites the finale of "Insignificance" as an influence on his own "Inception". In addition to this, Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight" features a love scene that is visibly influenced by that in "Don't Look Now".


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: A further theme that can be seen to be running through Roeg's filmography is characters who are out of their natural setting. Examples of this include the schoolchildren in the Outback in "Walkabout", the men and women in Venice in "Don't Look Now", the alien on Earth in "The Man Who Fell to Earth", and the Americans in Vienna in "Bad Timing".


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Roeg's influence on cinema is not limited to deconstructing narrative. The "Memo from Turner" sequence in "Performance" predates many techniques later used in music videos. The "quadrant" sequence in "Bad Timing", in which the thoughts of Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkel are heard before words are spoken set to Keith Jarrett's piano music from "The Köln Concert", stretched the boundaries of what could be done with film.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Roeg's cinematic work was showcased at the Riverside Studios from 12–14 September 2008. He introduced the retrospective with Miranda Richardson, who starred in "Puffball". The programme included "Bad Timing", "Far from the Madding Crowd", "The Man Who Fell to Earth", "The Witches", "Eureka", "Don't Look Now", and "Insignificance". The London Film Academy organised this event for Roeg in honour of his patronage of the school.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: In 1994, he was awarded a British Film Institute Fellowship. In the 1996 New Year Honours, Roeg was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: From 1957 to 1977, Roeg was married to English actress Susan Stephen. They had four sons: Waldo, Nico, Sholto and (film producer) Luc Roeg. Luc appeared as an actor, as Lucien John, in "Walkabout", Roeg's first film as solo director.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: In 1982, Roeg married American actress Theresa Russell and they had two sons: Maximillian (an actor) and Statten Roeg. They later divorced.


title: Nicolas Roeg

text: Actor Donald Sutherland (who named one of his sons after Roeg) described Roeg as a "fearless visionary". Filmmaker Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie, who starred in "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976), also paid tribute to Roeg, calling him a "great storyteller" and "inimitable".


title: Clash Royale

text: Clash Royale is a free-to-play real-time strategy video game developed and published by Supercell. The game combines elements from collectible card games, tower defense, and multiplayer online battle arena. The game was released globally on March 2, 2016. "Clash Royale" reached $1 billion in revenue in less than a year on the market. In three years, "Clash Royale" made $2.5 billion in revenue according to market intelligence company Sensor Tower. It is the first spinoff of "Clash of Clans".


title: Clash Royale

text: "Clash Royale" is a tower rush video game which puts players in games featuring two or four players (1v1 or 2v2) in which the objective is to destroy the most opposing towers, with the destruction of the "King's Tower" being an instantaneous win. After three minutes, if both of the players/teams have an equal number of crowns or none at all the match continues into a 2-minute "overtime" period and the player who destroys an opposing tower wins instantaneously. If no towers are destroyed during overtime, there is a tiebreaker, where all towers rapidly lose health, and the tower with the least health is destroyed. If two towers have the same health, there is a draw.


title: Clash Royale

text: In "Clash Royale," players are ranked by their number of trophies. Players level up by gaining Experience points through donating and upgrading cards. King Tower levels can reach level 14, and player levels can reach level 50; these factor into the competitive match-making.


title: Clash Royale

text: Trophies are won or lost through multiplayer battles. A player wins a battle by destroying more towers than the opponent (each destroyed tower being represented as a 'crown'), or by destroying the opponent's King's Tower, resulting in an automatic "three-crown" victory (unless the King's Tower was destroyed at the same time by both players, resulting in a rare draw).


title: Clash Royale

text: There are twenty-one playing arenas in total (excluding the Training Camp tutorial area): Goblin Stadium, Bone Pit, Barbarian Bowl, P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse, Spell Valley, Builder's Workshop, Royal Arena, Frozen Peak, Jungle Arena, Hog Mountain, Electro Valley, Spooky Town, Rascal's Hideout, Serenity Peak, Miner's Mine, Executioner's Kitchen, Royal Crypt, Silent Sanctuary, Dragon Spa, and Legendary Arena. Each arena corresponds to a certain trophy range.


title: Clash Royale

text: The original Legendary Arena represented the final arena following Serenity Peak, and it consisted of "Leagues", which were added to the game in March 2017. In the League system, players play through nine different leagues above 5000 trophies ranging from Challenger I to Ultimate Champion. At the end of each season, the player is reset to half of the trophies they gained above 5000 trophies. In the October 2022 update, this reset system was done away with in favor of a longer trophy road with more arenas, as well as a separate competitive gameplay mode that would follow a similar model as the Legendary Arena.


title: Clash Royale

text: Playable troops, buildings, and spells are represented as cards. Many cards are directly based on troops and buildings from Supercell's previous game "Clash of Clans", such as giants and cannons, and the game uses a similar art style. Prior to each battle (with the exception of the first battle in Training Camp), players construct a deck of eight cards which they use to attack and defend against their opponent's cards. At the start of each game, both players begin with four randomly chosen cards from their deck of eight, except Mirror and Elixir Collector.


title: Clash Royale

text: Each card costs a certain amount of elixir to play. Players start the battle with five elixir points (zero in Double and Triple Elixir modes), and one elixir point is replenished every 2.8 seconds (or 1.4 seconds in Double Elixir Mode, the final 60 seconds of the game and the first minute of overtime; and roughly every 0.9 seconds during Triple Elixir Mode and the last minute of overtime), to a maximum of ten elixir points. Once a card is played, a new card is automatically drawn from the player's eight card deck.


title: Clash Royale

text: Clash Royale first launched with 42 cards, consisting of 14 cards for each of three levels of rarity: Common, Rare, and Epic. The February 2016 update added two new cards under a new rarity level: Legendary. In October 2021, a new Champion card rarity was added to the game, with three new cards being added. These cards differentiate from other cards as a player can only have one Champion in their deck, and each Champion has a special ability that can be activated by spending additional elixir (for example, the Golden Knight's Dash ability costs 1 additional elixir). Subsequent updates have added cards to all the aforementioned rarity levels. , there are a total of 109 cards in the game.


title: Clash Royale

text: All cards now cap at level 14 with Common cards starting at level 1, Rare cards starting at level 3, Epic cards starting at level 6, Legendary cards starting at level 9, and Champion cards starting at level 11. All cards and crown tower levels are level 11 for all tournaments, except private tournaments, where you can set a cap to card and crown tower levels.


title: Clash Royale

text: The December 2018 update added Star Points to unlock special golden cosmetics for Max Level cards. In the October 2021 update, this was changed to be available from Level 7. Players also receive Star Points when gaining experience, which can be used to give their cards an updated visual skin, usually gold in color. There are up to three Star Levels for each card, which are unlocked when the card is leveled up to level 7 (for Star Level 1), level 10 (for Star Level 2) and level 13 (for Star Level 3).


title: Clash Royale

text: In the March 2022 update, card masteries were launched, which provided rewards for reaching specific milestones with cards in competitive matches. Statistics range from damage done, to troops destroyed, to towers tapped. Badges display a player's progress, and badges could be gained for other milestones as well such as wins in different game modes.


title: Clash Royale

text: Starting from Experience level 1, players can join or form clans. Joining or forming a clan enables the player to engage in friendly battles and clan wars. It also unlocks the feature of requesting cards when a player is level 3. Clan trading with the use of trade tokens unlocks when a player reaches level 8. There are four different types of trade tokens: Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary, corresponding to those card levels. Trade tokens can be obtained by gaining trophies, through challenges, and from the in-game shop. Each can be used to trade a certain amount of cards with other players, depending on the rarity of the trade token.


title: Clash Royale

text: On April 25, 2018, Clan Wars were added. Initially, a given war would be separated into two days: "Collection Day" and "War Day." Collection Day saw players battling in a variety of game modes which would rotate every month. Winning awarded cards to add to the Clan collection. If a minimum of ten players played one battle each, the Clan could progress to War Day, where a Clan was matched with four other Clans with a similar number of participants and Clan Trophies. Each participant would build a battle deck using only the cards unlocked on Collection Day. After the battles, each clan was ranked from 1st to 5th based on the number of Crowns awarded by wins. At the end of the War Day, all participating players received a War Bounty containing Gold or other items. Based on their war rank, Clans would then gain or lose a certain number of Trophies. Clans would progress through Clan Leagues by gaining Clan Trophies, with higher leagues granting better rewards. Clan Seasons lasted two weeks, and at the end of each season, a chest is awarded to every participating player based on the highest war rank and league the Clan had reached during the season.


title: Clash Royale

text: On August 31, 2020, Clan Wars II was added as a reworked version of its predecessor. Each week consists of three "Training Days" and four "Battle Days." During Training Days, participants can add troops to their respective Clan Boat, which mark the progress in the week's war and add movement bonuses based on surviving troops. Battles are fought with 32 total cards from the player's collection being used to make four unique war-decks with no overlapping cards. War-decks can be play-tested during these Training Days, though enemy Boats cannot be attacked until Battle Days. On Battle Days, players have the option of several battle variations, with medals awarded based on wins and participation. Like the original Clan Wars, Clan Trophies are still awarded for the clan's placement in the War, determined by which Clan Boat makes it the farthest in the River Race. After a week, the cycle will reset to Training Days, and each total War lasts five weeks, while each clan loses or gains trophies each week depending on where they finished that week. On the fifth week, the clan's boat stops at the Colosseum as the final round of battles before a new cycle begins against a new set of rival Clans.


title: Clash Royale

text: The game was soft-launched in Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and New Zealand for iOS platforms on January 4, 2016. The game was soft-launched on Android for those same countries on February 16, 2016, in the form of an Android application package. Both platforms received a global release on March 2, 2016.


title: Clash Royale

text: Upon its release, "Clash Royale" became the most downloaded and top-grossing app on the U.S. iOS App Store.


title: Clash Royale

text: "Clash Royale" mainly received positive reviews, with "TouchArcade" Eli Hodapp calling it "absolutely phenomenal" in his five-star review. "Pocket Gamer" Harry Slater gave the game a score of 9/10, summing up "It's an incredible amount of rewarding fun, it's nail-biting at times, and there's content here that will keep you busy for weeks if not months." Writing for Geek.com, James Plafke criticized ""Clash Royale" for being genuinely fun—more so than "Clash of Clans"—while the developer chronically interrupts the player from enjoying it." "Clash Royale" has received a positive response from its players, with an average score of 4.2 out of 5 on the Google Play Store and an average score of 4 out of 5 on the Apple App Store.


title: Clash Royale

text: The Clash Royale League was the official team esports world championship on a league format, developed by Supercell. It consisted of 5 leagues: North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and China. Season 1 started on August 20, 2018. After fifteen games per team during the regular season, playoffs were held in each region, after which the World Finals were held in Tokyo, Japan on December 1. The Finalists consisted of Nova Esports (China), KingZone Dragon-X (Asia), Vivo Keyd (Latin America), Team Queso (Europe), Immortals (North America), and Ponos Sports from Japan. Ponos achieved second in Asia and was allowed into the World Finals because of Japan's host status. A seeding tournament ranked the teams. After that the top two teams from the seeding tournament got a bye for the Quarter-Finals and automatically made it into the Semi-Finals. After the Quarter Finals it was the Semi-Finals then the Finals. The Season One World Champions are Nova Esports.


title: Clash Royale

text: The "Clash Royale Crown Championship" was the official esports world championship of the game, developed by Supercell. The tournament connects the best players all over the world from North America, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and more. The first edition had over 28 million participants all over the world, becoming the world's largest Clash Royale event. The first world champion was Sergio Ramos who beat MusicMaster by three games to one on the "Crown Championship World Finals". The 2017 Crown Championship in London, top 16 “Clash Royale” players in the world competed for a $400,000 prize pool. The 2018 "Clash Royale Crown Championship" is scheduled to be held in Asia.


title: Clash Royale

text: "Clash Royale" was part of an esport demonstration event during the 2018 Asian Games held in Indonesia. Eight countries are able to participate after having qualified from their respective regional qualification with Indonesia automatically qualified as host.


title: Divorce demography

text: The following are the countries with the most annual divorces according to the United Nations in 2009.


title: Divorce demography

text: This is divorces per 1,000 population per year. For example, if a city has 10,000 people living in it, and 30 couples divorce in one year, then the crude divorce rate for that year is 3 divorces per 1,000 residents.


title: Divorce demography

text: The crude divorce rate can give a general overview of marriage in an area, but it does not take people who cannot marry into account. For example, it would include young children, who are clearly not of marriageable age in its sample. In a place with large numbers of children or single adults, the crude divorce rate can seem low. In a place with few children and single adults, the crude divorce rate can seem high.


title: Divorce demography

text: This measures the number of divorces per 1,000 women married to men, so that all unmarried persons are left out of the calculation. For example, if that same city of 10,000 people has 3,000 married women, and 30 couples divorce in one year, then the refined divorce rate is 10 divorces per 1,000 married women.


title: Divorce demography

text: This compares the number of divorces in a given year to the number of marriages in that same year (the ratio of the crude divorce rate to the crude marriage rate). For example, if there are 500 divorces and 1,000 marriages in a given year in a given area, the ratio would be one divorce for every two marriages, e.g. a ratio of 0.50 (50%).


title: Divorce demography

text: However, this measurement compares two unlike populations – those who can marry and those who can divorce. Say there exists a community with 100,000 married couples, and very few people capable of marriage, for reasons such as age. If 1,000 people obtain divorces and 1,000 people get married in the same year, the ratio is one divorce for every marriage, which may lead people to think that the community's relationships are extremely unstable, despite the number of married people not changing. This is also true in reverse: a community with very many people of marriageable age may have 10,000 marriages and 1,000 divorces, leading people to believe that it has very stable relationships.


title: Divorce demography

text: Furthermore, these two rates are not directly comparable since the marriage rate only examines the current year, while the divorce rate examines the outcomes of marriages for many previous years. This does not equate to the proportion of marriages in a given single-year cohort that will ultimately end in divorce. In any given year, underlying rates may change, and this can affect the ratio. For example, during an economic downturn, some couples might postpone a divorce because they can't afford to live separately. These individual choices could seem to temporarily improve the divorce-to-marriage ratio.


title: ICC Women's T20 World Cup

text: The ICC Women's T20 World Cup (known as the ICC Women's World Twenty20 until 2019) is the biennial international championship for women's Twenty20 International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), with the first edition having been held in England in 2009. For the first three tournaments, there were eight participants, but this number has been raised to ten from the 2014 edition onwards. In July 2022, the ICC announced that the Bangladesh would host the 2024 tournament and that England would host the 2026 tournament. The number of teams in at the 2026 tournament is also set to increase to twelve.


title: ICC Women's T20 World Cup

text: At each tournament, a set number of teams qualify automatically, with the remaining teams determined by the World Twenty20 Qualifier. Australia, having won the tournament five times, are the most successful team.


title: ICC Women's T20 World Cup

text: Qualification is determined by the ICC Women's Twenty20 international rankings and a qualification event, the ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier. Until 2014, six teams were determined by the top six teams of the ICC Women's Twenty20 International rankings at the time of the draw and the remaining two places determined by a qualification process. In 2014 edition, six places were determined by the top eight teams of the ICC Women's T20I rankings, with the host country and three qualifiers joining them in the tournament. 2016 onwards, seven places were determined by the top eight teams of the ICC Women's T20I rankings, with the host country and two qualifiers joining them in the tournament.


title: Cave bear

text: The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.


title: Cave bear

text: Both the word "cave" and the scientific name "spelaeus" are used because fossils of this species were mostly found in caves. This reflects the views of experts that cave bears may have spent more time in caves than the brown bear, which uses caves only for hibernation.


title: Cave bear

text: Cave bear skeletons were first described in 1774 by Johann Friedrich Esper, in his book "Newly Discovered Zoolites of Unknown Four Footed Animals". While scientists at the time considered that the skeletons could belong to apes, canids, felids, or even dragons or unicorns, Esper postulated that they actually belonged to polar bears. Twenty years later, Johann Christian Rosenmüller, an anatomist at Leipzig University, gave the species its binomial name. The bones were so numerous that most researchers had little regard for them. During World War I, with the scarcity of phosphate dung, earth from the caves where cave bear bones occurred was used as a source of phosphates. When the "dragon caves" in Austria’s Styria region were exploited for this purpose, only the skulls and leg bones were kept.


title: Cave bear

text: Many caves in Central Europe have skeletons of cave bears inside, such as the "Heinrichshöhle" in Hemer and the "Dechenhöhle" in Iserlohn, Germany. A complete skeleton, five complete skulls, and 18 other bones were found inside Kletno Bear Cave, in 1966 in Poland. In Romania, in a cave called Bears' Cave, 140 cave bear skeletons were discovered in 1983.


title: Cave bear

text: Cave bear bones are found in several caves in the country of Georgia. In 2021, Akaki Tsereteli State University's students and a lecturer discovered two complete cave bear skulls, with molars, canines, humerus, three vertebrae and other bones, in a previously-unexplored cave.


title: Cave bear

text: In August 2020, a 'completely preserved' ice age cave bear carcass was found by reindeer herders in Russia. The preserved carcass was estimated to be between 22,000 and 39,500 years old, with radiocarbon dating proposed to ascertain a more accurate age. It is the only find of its kind with such full soft tissue preservation that even the nose was still intact. The preserved bear was found on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, part of the Lyakhovsky Islands archipelago. In a separate discovery, a well preserved cave bear cub was also found.


title: Cave bear

text: Both the cave bear and the brown bear are thought to be descended from the Plio-Pleistocene Etruscan bear ("Ursus etruscus") that lived about 5.3 Mya to 100,000 years ago. The last common ancestor of cave bears and brown bears lived between 1.2–1.4 Mya. The immediate precursor of the cave bear was probably "Ursus deningeri" (Deninger's bear), a species restricted to Pleistocene Europe about 1.8 Mya to 100,000 years ago. The transition between Deninger's bear and the cave bear is given as the last interglacial, although the boundary between these forms is arbitrary, and intermediate or transitional taxa have been proposed, e.g. "Ursus spelaeus deningeroides", while other authorities consider both taxa to be chronological variants of the same species.


title: Cave bear

text: Cave bears found anywhere will vary in age, thus facilitating investigations into evolutionary trends. The three anterior premolars were gradually reduced, then disappeared, possibly in response to a largely vegetarian diet. In a fourth of the skulls found in the "Conturines", the third premolar is still present, while more derived specimens elsewhere lack it. The last remaining premolar became conjugated with the true molars, enlarging the crown and granting it more cusps and cutting borders. This phenomenon, called "molarization", improved the mastication capacities of the molars, facilitating the processing of tough vegetation. This allowed the cave bear to gain more energy for hibernation, while eating less than its ancestors.


title: Cave bear

text: In 2005, scientists recovered and sequenced the nuclear DNA of a cave bear that lived between 42,000 and 44,000 years ago. The procedure used genomic DNA extracted from one of the animal's teeth. Sequencing the DNA directly (rather than first replicating it with the polymerase chain reaction), the scientists recovered 21 cave bear genes from remains that did not yield significant amounts of DNA with traditional techniques. This study confirmed and built on results from a previous study using mitochondrial DNA extracted from cave bear remains ranging from 20,000 to 130,000 years old. Both show that the cave bear was more closely related to the brown bear and polar bear than it was to the American black bear, but had split from the brown bear lineage before the distinct eastern and western brown bear lineages diversified, and before the split of brown bears and polar bears. The divergence date estimate of cave bears and brown bears is about 1.2–1.4 Mya. However, a recent study showed that both species had some hybridization between them.


title: Cave bear

text: The cave bear had a very broad, domed skull with a steep forehead; its stout body had long thighs, massive shins and in-turning feet, making it similar in skeletal structure to the brown bear. Cave bears were comparable in size to, or larger than, the largest modern-day bears, measuring up to in length. The average weight for males was , though some specimens weighed as much as , while females weighed . Of cave bear skeletons in museums, 90% are classified as male due to a misconception that the female skeletons were merely "dwarfs". Cave bears grew larger during glaciations and smaller during interglacials, probably to adjust heat loss rate.


title: Cave bear

text: Cave bears of the last Ice Age lacked the usual two or three premolars present in other bears; to compensate, the last molar is very elongated, with supplementary cusps. The humerus of the cave bear was similar in size to that of the polar bear, as were the femora of females. The femora of male cave bears, however, bore more similarities in size to those of Kodiak bears.


title: Cave bear

text: Cave bear teeth were very large and show greater wear than most modern bear species, suggesting a diet of tough materials. However, tubers and other gritty food, which cause distinctive tooth wear in modern brown bears, do not appear to have constituted a major part of cave bears' diets on the basis of dental microwear analysis.


title: Cave bear

text: The morphological features of the cave bear chewing apparatus, including loss of premolars, have long been suggested to indicate their diets displayed a higher degree of herbivory than the Eurasian brown bear. Indeed, a solely vegetarian diet has been inferred on the basis of tooth morphology. Results obtained on the stable isotopes of cave bear bones also point to a largely vegetarian diet in having low levels of nitrogen-15 and carbon-13, which are accumulated at a faster rate by carnivores as opposed to herbivores.


title: Cave bear

text: However, some evidence points toward the occasional inclusion of animal protein in cave bear diets. For example, toothmarks on cave bear remains in areas where cave bears are the only recorded potential carnivores suggests occasional cannibalistic scavenging, possibly on individuals that died during hibernation, and dental microwear analysis indicates the cave bear may have fed on a greater quantity of bone than its contemporary, the smaller Eurasian brown bear. Additionally, cave bear remains from Peștera cu Oase in the southwestern tip of the Romanian part of the Carpathian Mountains had elevated levels of nitrogen-15 in their bones, indicative of omnivorous diets, although the values are within the range of those found for the strictly herbivorous mammoth.


title: Cave bear

text: Although the current prevailing opinion concludes that cave bears were largely herbivorous, and more so than any modern species of the genus "Ursus", increasing evidence points to omnivorous diets, based both on regional variability of isotopic composition of bone remains indicative of dietary plasticity, and on a recent re-evaluation of craniodental morphology that places the cave bear squarely among omnivorous modern bear species with respect to its skull and tooth shapes.


title: Cave bear

text: Death during hibernation was a common end for cave bears, mainly befalling specimens that failed ecologically during the summer season through inexperience, sickness or old age. Some cave bear bones show signs of numerous ailments, including spinal fusion, bone tumours, cavities, tooth resorption, necrosis (particularly in younger specimens), osteomyelitis, periostitis, rickets and kidney stones. Male cave bear skeletons have been found with broken bacula, probably due to fighting during the breeding season. Cave bear longevity is unknown, though it has been estimated that they seldom exceeded twenty years of age. Paleontologists doubt adult cave bears had any natural predators, save for pack-hunting wolves and cave hyenas, which would probably have attacked sick or infirm individuals. Cave hyenas are thought to be responsible for the disarticulation and destruction of some cave bear skeletons. Such large carcasses were an optimal food resource for the hyenas, especially at the end of the winter, when food was scarce. The presence of fully articulated adult cave lion skeletons, deep in cave bear dens, indicates the lions may have occasionally entered dens to prey on hibernating cave bears, with some dying in the attempt.


title: Cave bear

text: The cave bear's range stretched across Europe; from Spain and Great Britain in the west, Italy, parts of Germany, Poland, the Balkans, Romania, Georgia (country) and parts of Russia, including the Caucasus; and northern Iran. No traces of cave bears have been found in Scotland, Scandinavia or the Baltic countries, which were all covered in extensive glaciers at the time. The largest numbers of cave bear remains have been found in Austria, Switzerland, northern Italy, northern Spain, southern France, and Romania, roughly corresponding with the Pyrenees, Alps, and Carpathians. The huge number of bones found in southern, central and eastern Europe has led some scientists to think Europe may have once had herds of cave bears. Others, however, point out that, though some caves have thousands of bones, they were accumulated over a period of 100,000 years or more, thus requiring only two deaths in a cave per year to account for the large numbers.


title: Cave bear

text: The cave bear inhabited low mountainous areas, especially in regions rich in limestone caves. They seem to have avoided open plains, preferring forested or forest-edged terrains.


title: Cave bear

text: Between the years 1917 and 1923, the Drachenloch cave in Switzerland was excavated by Emil Bächler. The excavation uncovered more than 30,000 cave bear skeletons. It also uncovered a stone chest or cist, consisting of a low wall built from limestone slabs near a cave wall with a number of bear skulls inside it. A cave bear skull was also found with a femur bone from another bear stuck inside it. Scholars speculated that it was proof of prehistoric human religious rites involving the cave bear, or that the Drachenloch cave bears were hunted as part of a hunting ritual, or that the skulls were kept as trophies. In "Archaeology, Religion, Ritual" (2004), archaeologist Timothy Insoll strongly questions whether the Drachenloch finds in the stone cist were the result of human interaction. Insoll states that the evidence for religious practices involving cave bears in this time period is "far from convincing". Insoll also states that comparisons with the religious practices involving bears that are known from historic times are invalid.


title: Cave bear

text: A similar phenomenon was encountered in Regourdou, southern France. A rectangular pit contained the remains of at least twenty bears, covered by a massive stone slab. The remains of a Neanderthal lay nearby in another stone pit, with various objects, including a bear humerus, a scraper, a core, and some flakes, which were interpreted as grave offerings.


title: Cave bear

text: An unusual discovery in a deep chamber of Basura Cave in Savona, Italy, is thought to be related to cave bear worship, because there is a vaguely zoomorphic stalagmite surrounded by clay pellets. It is thought to have been used by Neanderthals for a ceremony; bear bones scattered on the floor further suggests it was likely to have had some sort of ritual purpose.


title: Cave bear

text: Reassessment of fossils in 2019 indicate that the cave bear probably died out 24,000 years ago. A complex set of factors, rather than a single factor, are suggested to have led to the extinction.


title: Cave bear

text: Compared with other megafaunal species that also became extinct during the Last Glacial Maximum, the cave bear was believed to have had a more specialized diet of high-quality plants and a relatively restricted geographical range. This was suggested as an explanation as to why it died out so much earlier than the rest. Some experts have disputed this claim, as the cave bear had survived multiple climate changes prior to extinction. Additionally, mitochondrial DNA research indicated that the genetic decline of the cave bear began long before it became extinct, demonstrating habitat loss due to climate change was not responsible. Finally, high δN levels were found in cave bear bones from Romania, indicating wider dietary possibilities than previously believed.


title: Cave bear

text: Overhunting by humans has been largely dismissed because human populations at the time were too small to pose a serious threat to the cave bear's survival, though the two species may have competed for living space in caves. Unlike brown bears, cave bears are seldom represented in cave paintings, leading some experts to believe the cave bear may have been avoided by human hunters or their habitat preferences may not have overlapped. Paleontologist Björn Kurtén hypothesized cave bear populations were fragmented and under stress even before the advent of the glaciers. Populations living south of the Alps possibly survived significantly longer.


title: Cave bear

text: Some evidence indicates that the cave bear used only caves for hibernation and was not inclined to use other locations, such as thickets, for this purpose, in contrast to the more versatile brown bear. This specialized hibernation behavior would have caused a high winter mortality rate for cave bears that failed to find available caves. Therefore, as human populations slowly increased, the cave bear faced a shrinking pool of suitable caves, and slowly faded away to extinction, as both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans sought out caves as living quarters, depriving the cave bear of vital habitat. This hypothesis is being researched . According to the research study, published in the journal "Molecular Biology and Evolution", radiocarbon dating of the fossil remains shows that the cave bear ceased to be abundant in Central Europe around 35,000 years ago.


title: Cave bear

text: In 2019 the results of a large scale study of 81 bone specimens (resulting in 59 new sequences), and 64 previously published complete mitochondrial genomes of cave bear mitochondrial DNA remains found in Switzerland, Poland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Serbia, indicated that the cave bear population drastically declined starting around 40,000 years ago at the onset of the Aurignacian, coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans. It was concluded that human hunting and/or competition played a major role in their decline and ultimate disappearance, and that climate change was not likely to have been the dominant factor. In a study of Spanish cave bear mtDNA, each cave used by cave bears was found to contain almost exclusively a unique lineage of closely related haplotypes, indicating a homing behaviour for birthing and hibernation. The conclusion of this study is cave bears could not easily colonize new sites when in competition with humans for these resources.


title: Cave bear

text: In 2020 a well preserved ice age cave bear was found on the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. Nearby, on the Siberian mainland of Yakutia, a small, well preserved cave bear cub recently emerged from another patch of melting permafrost.


title: North Hollywood (film)

text: North Hollywood is a 2021 film written and directed by Mikey Alfred. The film is loosely based on Alfred's life and his relationship with his father. The film stars Ryder McLaughlin, Vince Vaughn, and Miranda Cosgrove. Alfred began looking for funding to produce and direct the film in 2018, after being a co-producer on "Mid90s" (2018).


title: North Hollywood (film)

text: Michael is a high school graduate living in North Hollywood, California with dreams of becoming a professional skateboarder. After being noticed by two professional skaters, Michael quits his water polo team to focus exclusively on skating. This leads to tension within Michael's relationship with his friends and his father. Michael thinks that his friends, Jay and Adolf, are not taking skating as seriously as him and he does not want to waste time with them. For this reason he starts to skate with them less and more with the professional skaters, which adds to the tension in their relationships. His father does not see skating as a realistic career and wants him to go to college and pursue stable employment. Michael is ultimately faced with the decision between choosing the future his father wants, or following his dream of becoming a professional skater.


title: North Hollywood (film)

text: There are several cameos in "North Hollywood", ranging from popular skaters, actors, musicians, and entrepreneurs.


title: North Hollywood (film)

text: The film had its world premiere starting on March 26, 2021 at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. It was the first public event for the Sofi Stadium. Due to the pandemic, it was a drive-in style. The premiere was hosted for 3 nights in a row.


title: North Hollywood (film)

text: In the United States' review aggregator, the Rotten Tomatoes, in the score where the site staff categorizes the opinions of independent media and mainstream media only positive or negative, the film has an approval rating of 78% calculated based on 18 critics reviews. By comparison, with the same opinions being calculated using a weighted arithmetic mean, the score achieved is 6.0/10.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: Scott Cooper (born April 20, 1970) is an American director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is known for writing and directing "Crazy Heart" (2009), "Out of the Furnace" (2013), "Black Mass" (2015), "Hostiles" (2017). His latest film was "Antlers" (2021).


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: Cooper was born in Abingdon, Virginia. He is a 1988 graduate of Abingdon High School. Cooper trained as an actor at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City. He received both his undergraduate degree in 1992 and his Doctor of Humane Letters in 2014 from Hampden–Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Virginia.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: He made the switch to directing with 2009's "Crazy Heart", starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The film, released by Fox Searchlight Pictures, received widespread critical acclaim and a number of accolades, including the Academy Awards for Best Actor (Bridges) and Best Original Song.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: Among "Crazy Heart"'s fans were director Ridley Scott and producer Michael Costigan, as well as executives at Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way. Cooper was offered the opportunity to develop "The Low Dweller", a spec script written by Brad Ingelsby that had DiCaprio and Scott attached, as actor and director respectively. Cooper rewrote the script, drawing on his experience of growing up in Appalachia and losing a sibling at a young age.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: Relativity Media put the film, now titled "Out of the Furnace", into production in 2012, with Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson and Casey Affleck leading the ensemble cast. Cooper directed the film, and shared writing credit with Ingelsby. DiCaprio and Scott remained as producers.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: In January 2014, Cooper became attached to rewrite and direct "Black Mass", a crime drama based the book of the same name by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, described as the "true story of Billy Bulger, Whitey Bulger, FBI agent John Connolly and the FBI's witness protection program that was created by J. Edgar Hoover." Barry Levinson had previously been involved with the project. Johnny Depp, who had been on and off the project for a number of years, came back on board to play the infamous Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger, alongside Joel Edgerton as Connolly and Benedict Cumberbatch as Billy Bulger. The film was released in 2015. In 2016, he sold his home in Brentwood for $3.6 million and it was widely covered in the media.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: Cooper wrote, directed and produced the 2017 western "Hostiles", based on a decades old manuscript by the late screenwriter Donald E. Stewart. The film reteamed Cooper with his "Out of the Furnace" star, Bale, alongside Rosamund Pike. It had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, with US distribution rights picked up by Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures. Cooper's next film was the supernatural horror story "Antlers", starring Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons and co-produced by Guillermo del Toro, which was released in 2021.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: In 2019, actor Christian Bale announced that Cooper will direct his upcoming "Valhalla", which Joel Edgerton might star in, as well as the film adaptation of Jess Walter’s "Over Tumbled Graves". He has also started a scholarship program for students to access high-quality education in the US and Canada colleges.


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: Films that have influenced Cooper include: Robert Altman's "Nashville", Terrence Malick's "Badlands", John Huston's "Fat City" and Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show".


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: His principal film-making mentor has been veteran actor, producer and director, Robert Duvall. He and Duvall met on the set of "Gods and Generals" and struck up a friendship. Cooper was married on Duvall's Virginia estate. The two appeared together in "Broken Trail" and "Get Low (film)", and Duvall produced and appeared in Cooper's film "Crazy Heart".


title: Scott Cooper (director)

text: Cooper is married and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jocelyne Cooper, and their two daughters, Ava Stella and one boy Aria.


title: East Turkestan

text: East Turkestan (; ; also spelled East Turkistan), is a loosely-defined geographical and historical region in the western provinces of the People's Republic of China, which varies in meaning by context and usage. The term was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists, including Nikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, Chinese Turkestan, which referred to the Tarim Basin in the southwestern part of Xinjiang during the Qing Dynasty. The medieval Persian toponym "Turkestan" and its derivatives were not, however, used by the local population. The Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr, which means "Six Cities" in Uyghur. China from the Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty had called an overlapping area the "Western Regions". The parts of this area controlled by China were termed "Xinjiang" starting in the 18th century.


title: East Turkestan

text: From the 20th century on, Uyghur separatists and their supporters used East Turkestan as an appellation for the whole of Xinjiang (the Tarim Basin and Dzungaria) or for a future independent state in present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They reject the name of Xinjiang (meaning "New Frontier" in Chinese) because of the Chinese perspective reflected in the name and prefer East Turkestan to emphasize the connection to other, westerly, Turkic groups.


title: East Turkestan

text: The First East Turkestan Republic existed from November 12, 1933, until April 16, 1934, and the Second East Turkestan Republic existed between November 12, 1944, and December 22, 1949. East Turkestan is a founding member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), which was formed in 1991, where it is represented by the World Uyghur Congress. In September 2004, the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile was established in Washington, D.C.


title: East Turkestan

text: The term was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists, including Nikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, Chinese Turkestan, which referred to the Tarim Basin in the southwestern part of Xinjiang during the Qing Dynasty. The alternate term Uyghuristan means 'land of Uyghurs'. The latter name was given to the region by medieval Muslim geographers.


title: East Turkestan

text: A document found in 1969 Astana, Turfan, which later named as "Documents on the Sogdian Slave Trade during the Gochang period of the Koji clan (Japanese: 麹氏高昌国時代ソグド文女奴隷売買文書)" shows that in 639 the name Turkistan was used as this name of this land in Sogdian word "twrkstn".


title: East Turkestan

text: In China, the term Western Regions (; Uyghur: Qurighar, Қуриғар) referred to the regions west of the Yumen Pass and more specifically the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang that had come under the Han dynasty's control since 60 BC. Since the Han, successive Chinese governments had to deal with secessionist movements and local rebellions from different peoples in the region. However, even when Xinjiang was not under Chinese political control, Xinjiang has long had "close contacts with China" that distinguish it from the independent Turkic countries of Central Asia. The Gökturks, known in ancient Chinese with pronunciation as Tutkyud as well as modern Chinese pronunciation as Tujue (Tu-chueh; ) united the Turkic peoples and created a large empire, which broke into various Khanates or Khaganates; the Western Turkic Khaganate inherited Xinjiang, but West Tujue became part of China's Tang dynasty until the ninth century. However, the terms for West Tujue and East Tujue do not have any relation with the terms West and East Turkestan. "Turkestan", which means "region of the Turks", was defined by Arab geographers in the ninth and tenth centuries as the areas northeast of the Sir River. For those Arab writers, the Turks were Turkic-speaking nomads and not the sedentary Persian-speaking oasis dwellers. With the various migrations and political upheavals following the collapse of the Gökturk confederation and the Mongol invasions, "Turkestan", according to the official Chinese position, gradually ceased to be a useful geographic descriptor and was not used.


title: East Turkestan

text: During the sixteenth century, the Chagatai Khanate completed the Islamification and Turkification of western Xinjiang and the surrounding region, known then as Moghulistan, while China's Ming dynasty held the Eastern Areas. After the Fall of the Ming dynasty, a western Mongol group established a polity in "Chinese Tartary" as it was sometimes known or in eastern Xinjiang, expanding southward into southern Xinjiang. In 1755, the Qing dynasty defeated the Mongol Dzungar Khanate and captured two territories in Xinjiang. The northern territory, where the Dzungars lived, was called Dzungaria, while the southern areas which the Dzungars controlled and mined were called Huijiang (Hui-chiang; ) or Altishahr. The term "Xinjiang", which up until that time simply meant all territories new to the Qing, gradually shifted in meaning for the Qing court to exclusively mean Dzungaria and Altishahr taken together. In 1764, the Qianlong Emperor made this use of Xinjiang as a proper name official and issued an imperial order defining Xinjiang as a "provincial administrative area". After General Tso (Tso Ts'ung T'ang) suppressed the Dungan revolt in 1882, Xinjiang was officially reorganized into a province and the name Xinjiang was popularized, superseding "Xiyu" in writing.


title: East Turkestan

text: At the same time as the Chinese consolidation of control in Xinjiang, explorers from the British and Russian empires explored, mapped and delineated Central Asia in a competition of colonial expansion. Several influential Russians would propose new terms for the territories, as in 1805 when the Russian explorer Timovski revived the use of "Turkestan" to refer to Middle Asia and "East Turkestan" to refer to the Tarim Basin east of Middle Asia in southern Xinjiang or in 1829, when the Russian sinologist Nikita Bichurin proposed the use of "East Turkestan" to replace "Chinese Turkestan" for the Chinese territory east of Bukhara. The Russian Empire mused expansion into Xinjiang, which it informally called "Little Bukhara". Between 1851 and 1881, Russia occupied the Ili valley in Xinjiang and continued to negotiate with the Qing for trading and settlement rights for Russians. Regardless of the new Russian appellations, the original inhabitants of Central Asia generally continued not to use the word "Turkestan" to refer to their own territories.


title: East Turkestan

text: After a spate of annexations in Middle Asia, Russia consolidated its holdings west of the Pamir Mountains as the Turkestan Governorate or "Russian Turkestan" in 1867. It is at this time that Western writers began to divide Turkestan into a Russian and a Chinese part. Although foreigners acknowledged that Xinjiang was a Chinese polity, and that there were Chinese names for the region, some travelers preferred to use "names that emphasized Turkic, Islamic or Central Asian, i.e., non-Chinese characteristics". For contemporary British travelers and English-language material, there was no consensus on a designation for Xinjiang, with "Chinese Turkestan", "East Turkestan", "Chinese Central Asia", "Serindia" and "Sinkiang" being used interchangeably to describe the region of Xinjiang. Until the 20th century, locals used the names of cities or oases in their "territorial self-perception", which expanded or contracted as needed, such as Kashgaria out of Kashgar to refer to southwestern Xinjiang. Altishahr, or "six cities", collectively referred to six vaguely defined cities south of the Tian Shan.


title: East Turkestan

text: In 1912, the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty and created a Republic of China. As Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor, fled from Xinjiang, one of his subordinates, Yang Zengxin (杨增新), took control of the province and acceded in name to the Republic of China in March of the same year. In 1921, the Soviet Union officially defined the Uyghurs as the sedentary Turkic peoples from Chinese Turkestan as part of their nation building policy in Central Asia. Multiple insurgencies arose against Yang's successor Jin Shuren (金树仁) in the early 1930s throughout Xinjiang, usually led by Hui people. "East Turkestan" became a rallying cry for people who spoke Turki and believed in Islam to rebel against Chinese authorities. In the Kashgar region on November 12, 1933, Uyghur separatists declared the short-lived and self-proclaimed East Turkestan Republic (ETR), using the term "East Turkestan" to emphasize the state's break from China and new anti-China orientation.


title: East Turkestan

text: The First ETR gave political meaning to the erstwhile geographical term of East Turkestan. However, the Chinese warlord Sheng Shicai (盛世才) quickly defeated the ETR and ruled Xinjiang for the decade after 1934 with close support from the Soviet Union. Eventually, though, the Soviet Union exploited the change in power from Sheng to Kuomintang officials to create the puppet Second East Turkestan Republic (1944–1949) in present-day Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture to exploit its minerals, later justifying it as a national liberation movement against the "reactionary" Kuomintang regime. Amid the anti-Han programs and policies and exclusion of "pagans", or non-Muslims, from the separatist government, Kuomintang leaders based in Dihua (Ürümqi) appealed to the long Chinese history in the region to justify its sovereignty over Xinjiang. In response, Soviet historians produced revisionist histories to help the ETR justify its own claims to sovereignty, with statements such as that the Uyghurs were the "most ancient Turkic people" that had contributed to world civilization. Traditionally, scholars had thought of Xinjiang as a "cultural backwater" compared to the other Central Asian states during the Islamic Golden Age. Local British and US consuls, also intrigued by the separatist government, published their own histories of the region. The Soviet Uyghur histories produced during its support of the ETR remain the basis of Uyghur nationalist publications today.


title: East Turkestan

text: At the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, with Xinjiang divided between Kuomintang forces and ETR secessionists, the Communist leadership persuaded both governments to surrender and accept the succession of the People's Republic of China government and negotiated the establishment of Communist provincial governments in Yining (Ghulja) and Dihua. On October 1, 1955, Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong designated Xinjiang a "Uyghur Autonomous Region", creating a regionwide Uyghur identity which overtook Uyghurs' traditionally local and oasis-based identities. Although the Soviet Union initially suppressed the publications of its past Uyghur studies programs, after the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, it revived its Uyghur studies program as part of an "ideological war" against China. The term "East Turkestan" was popularized in academic works, but inconsistently: at times, the term East Turkestan only referred to area in Xinjiang south of the Tian Shan mountains, corresponding to the Tarim Basin; the areas north of the Tian Shan mountains were called Dzungaria or Zungaria. Tursun Rakhimov, a Uyghur historian for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the Sino-Soviet split, argued in his 1981 book "Fate of the Non-Han Peoples of the PRC" that "both" East Turkestan and Dzungaria were conquered by China and "renamed" Xinjiang. Occasionally, he used East Turkestan and Xinjiang interchangeably. Concurrently during the Cultural Revolution and the Revolution's campaigns against "local nationalism", the government had come to associate the term East Turkestan with Uyghur separatism and "" and forbade its usage. Uyghur nationalist historian Turghun Almas and his book Uyghurlar (The Uyghurs) and Uyghur nationalist accounts of history were galvanized by Soviet stances on history, "firmly grounded" in Soviet Turcological works, and both heavily influenced and partially created by Soviet historians and Soviet works on Turkic peoples. Soviet historiography spawned the rendering of Uyghur history found in Uyghurlar. Almas claimed that Central Asia was "the motherland of the Uyghurs" and also the "ancient golden cradle of world culture". The global trends set by the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the rise of global Islamism and pan-Turkism revived separatist sentiments in Xinjiang and led to a wave of political violence that killed 162 people between 1990 and 2001.


title: East Turkestan

text: In 2001, the government of China lifted its ban on state media's using the terms "Uyghurstan" or "East Turkestan", as part of a general opening up after the September 11 attacks to the world about political violence in Xinjiang and a plea for international help to suppress East Turkestan terrorists. In 2004, the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile was established in Washington, DC under the leadership of Anwar Yusuf Turani to strive for East Turkistan's independence. To justify the PRC's claim to East Turkestan, a white paper was published in 2019 which made a statement that 'East Turkestan' never existed and it was only called 'Xinjiang' and been part of China since early history. East Turkestan was historically not treated as an inseparable part of China, but rather colonized by Han Chinese who had little in common with the Uyghur population.


title: East Turkestan

text: On February 28, 2017, it was announced by the Qira County government in Hotan Prefecture that those who reported others for stitching the 'star and crescent moon' insignia on their clothing or personal items or having the words 'East Turkestan' on their mobile phone case, purse or other jewelry, would be eligible for cash payments.


title: East Turkestan

text: As the history of Xinjiang in particular is contested between the government of China and Uyghur separatists, the official and common name of Xinjiang (with its Uyghur loanword counterpart, "Shinjang") is rejected by those seeking independence. "East Turkestan", a term of Russian origin, asserts a continuity with a "West Turkestan" or the now-independent states of Soviet Central Asia. Not all of those states accept the designation of "Turkestan", however; Tajikistan's Persian-speaking population feels more closely aligned with Iran and Afghanistan. For separatists, East Turkestan is coterminous with Xinjiang or the independent state that they would like to lead in Xinjiang. Proponents of the term "East Turkestan" argue that the name Xinjiang is arrogant, because if the individual Chinese characters are to be taken literally and not as a proper name, then Xinjiang means "New Territory". Some Chinese scholars have advocated a name change for the region or a reversion to the older term Xiyu ("Western Regions"), arguing that "Xinjiang" might mislead people into thinking that Xinjiang is "new" to China. Other scholars defend the name, noting that Xinjiang was new to the late Qing dynasty, which gave Xinjiang its current name.


title: East Turkestan

text: In modern separatist usage, "Uyghuristan" (Уйғуристан), which means "land of the Uyghurs", is a synonym for Xinjiang or a potential state in Xinjiang, like "East Turkestan". There is no consensus among separatists about whether to use "East Turkestan" or "Uyghurstan". "East Turkestan" has the advantage of also being the name of two historic political entities in the region, while Uyghurstan appeals to modern ideas of ethnic self-determination. East Turkistan was also used in the context of Yaqub Beg's Kashgaria in the mid-1800s. Uyghurstan is also a difference in emphasis in that it excludes more peoples in Xinjiang than just the Han, but the "East Turkestan" movement is still a Uyghur phenomenon. Kazakhs and Hui Muslims are largely alienated from the movement, as are Uyghurs who live closer to the eastern provinces of China. Separatist sentiment is strongest among the Uyghur diaspora, who practice what has been called "cyber-separatism", encouraging the use of "East Turkestan" on their websites and literature. Historically "Uyghurstan" referred to the northeastern oasis region of "Kumul-Turfan". "Chinese Turkestan", while synonymous with East Turkestan in historical terms, is not used today, rejected by Uyghur separatists for the "Chinese" part of the name and by China for the "Turkestan" part.


title: East Turkestan

text: In China, the terms "East Turkestan", "Uyghurstan" and even "Turkestan" alone connotes old Western imperialism and the past East Turkestan republics and modern militant groups, such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The government of China conflates the violence of differing separatist groups, such as the ETIM and the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, as coming simply from "East Turkestan forces". Chinese diplomatic missions have objected to foreigners' use of "East Turkestan". They argue that the term is political and no longer geographical or historical and that its use represents "a provocation" to the sovereignty of China. The historical definitions for "East Turkestan" are multifarious and ambiguous, reflecting that outside of Chinese administration, the area now called "Xinjiang" was not geographically or demographically a single region.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: The Kids Are All Right is a 2010 American comedy-drama film directed by Lisa Cholodenko and written by Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg. It is among the first mainstream movies to show a same-sex couple raising two teenagers. A hit at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, it opened in limited release on July 9, 2010, expanded to more theaters on July 30, 2010, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 16, 2010. The film was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Annette Bening was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film also received four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture, at the 83rd Academy Awards.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: Nicole 'Nic' and Jules Allgood are a married same-sex couple living in the Los Angeles area. Nic is an obstetrician and Jules is a housewife who is starting a landscape design business. Each has given birth to a child using the same sperm donor.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: Nic and Jules' 16-year-old son Laser wants to find his biological father, but is too young to request that information from the sperm bank, so he asks his 18-year-old sister Joni to contact them. The sperm bank identifies Paul Hatfield, a restaurant owner, as the donor and shares his contact information.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: When the three meet, Joni is impressed by Paul's bohemian lifestyle, and Paul becomes enthusiastic about being in their lives. Joni swears her brother to secrecy as she does not want to upset their mothers. However, Jules and Nic find out and invite Paul over to dinner. When Jules reveals she has a landscape business, Paul asks her to transform his back garden. Jules agrees, although Nic does not like the idea.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: Paul is appreciative of Jules' talent, something that Jules feels she is lacking from Nic. After Jules impulsively kisses Paul one afternoon, they end up in bed together and start an affair. As Jules and the kids start spending more time with Paul, Nic becomes apprehensive, believing Paul undermines her authority over the children. After a heated argument with Jules, Nic suggests they all have dinner at Paul's house to ease the tension. The dinner goes well until Nic discovers traces of Jules's hair in Paul's bathroom and bedroom.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: When confronted by Nic, Jules admits to the affair, but assures Nic that she is not in love with Paul and has not turned straight; she just wanted to be appreciated. Joni and Laser overhear the argument, causing the household to become tense. Paul, believing he has fallen in love with Jules, calls her to suggest that she leave Nic and come live with him, bringing the kids. Jules declines, disgusted with Paul's lack of understanding about her sexuality.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: The night before Joni leaves for college, Paul arrives at the Allgoods' house. He is rejected by Joni and angrily confronted by Nic. Laser ignores him as he tries to get his attention through the window. Later that night, Jules tearfully begs her family's forgiveness.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: The next morning, the family drives Joni to college. While Nic and Jules hug Joni goodbye, they also affectionately touch each other. During the ride home, Laser tells his mothers that they should not break up because they are too old. Jules and Nic laugh, and the film ends with them smiling at each other and holding hands.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: Lisa Cholodenko and Blumberg began outlining the script in late 2004, based in part on some aspects of her life. The project was helped to get off the ground by the caliber of actors who agreed to join, first Julianne Moore, followed by Mark Ruffalo and Annette Bening. Cholodenko stated "People really admired what Stuart [Blumberg] and I got on the page but there was a fear factor regarding how the film was going to make money, as the subject matter is tricky." The film nearly got the green-light in 2006, but Cholodenko postponed the project after she became pregnant by way of an anonymous sperm donor. After giving birth, she resumed work on the film and won financing from three major investors, including the French distributor UGC.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: Principal photography was completed in 23 days in Los Angeles in July 2009. The film was made for approximately $4 million. The filmmakers rushed to finish the post-production in time for the Sundance Film Festival, where it was admitted after the deadline for competitive entries. On January 25, 2010 the film had its premiere, becoming one of the festival's breakout hits. A few days later, Focus Features acquired the distribution rights for $4.8 million. At the 60th Berlinale the film won a Teddy Award. The film closed the 2010 Sydney Film Festival and opened the Los Angeles Film Festival.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: Opening in limited release at seven theaters, "The Kids Are All Right" grossed $491,971 in its first weekend. At $70,282 per theater, the film scored the highest average gross in 2010 as of mid-July 2010. It expanded to 38 theaters on July 16, then 201 on July 23, and finally 847 on July 30. , the film grossed a total of $34,758,951 worldwide.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: The film was released to wide acclaim from critics, with Bening receiving widespread praise for her performance. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 92% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 227 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's consensus is that "Worthwhile as both a well-acted ensemble piece and as a smart, warm statement on family values, "The Kids Are All Right" is remarkable." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 86 based on 39 reviews, with the film in the "universal acclaim" category. Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars out of 4 and wrote, ""The Kids Are All Right" centers on a lesbian marriage, but is not about one. It's a film about marriage itself, an institution with challenges that are universal. Just imagine: You're expected to live much, if not all, of your married life with another adult. We're not raised for this." The film appeared on 39 critics' top ten movie lists for the year 2010. Anthony Quinn of "The Independent" and Elizabeth Weitzman of the "Daily News" both listed it as the best film of the year, and four other critics picked it as the second best movie of the year.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: Annette Bening won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Nominations were also given to Julianne Moore for Best Actress and Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for Best Screenplay. Moore and Bening were both nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Mark Ruffalo was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Cholodenko and Blumberg were also nominees for Best Original Screenplay. The film was nominated for Best Picture at the 83rd Academy Awards. Bening and Ruffalo were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively. Cholodenko and Blumberg were also nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Laura Rosenthal and Liz Dean won the Artios Award for Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Feature – Studio or Independent Comedy, given by the Casting Society of America.


title: The Kids Are All Right (film)

text: The screenplay was ranked the 21st best American screenplay of the 21st century in IndieWire, with Jude Dry praising the script as "a witty and artful take on contemporary family life. Bitingly clever and unafraid to take unexpected turns".


title: Water clock

text: A water clock or clepsydra (; ; ) is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured.


title: Water clock

text: Water clocks are one of the oldest time-measuring instruments. The bowl-shaped outflow is the simplest form of a water clock and is known to have existed in Babylon, Egypt, and Persia around the 16th century BC. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks, but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, claim that water clocks appeared in China as early as 4000 BC. Water clocks were also used in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, described by technical writers such as Ctesibius and Vitruvius.


title: Water clock

text: A water clock uses the flow of water to measure time. If viscosity is neglected, the physical principle required to study such clocks is Torricelli's law. There are two types of water clocks: inflow and outflow. In an outflow water clock, a container is filled with water, and the water is drained slowly and evenly out of the container. This container has markings that are used to show the passage of time. As the water leaves the container, an observer can see where the water is level with the lines and tell how much time has passed. An inflow dasher water clock works in basically the same way, except instead of flowing out of the container, the water is filling up the marked container. As the container fills, the observer can see where the water meets the lines and tell how much time has passed.


title: Water clock

text: Some modern timepieces are called "water clocks" but work differently from the ancient ones. Their timekeeping is governed by a pendulum, but they use water for other purposes, such as providing the power needed to drive the clock by using a water wheel or something similar, or by having water in their displays. A water clock is one of the oldest instruments ever, and one of the most important.


title: Water clock

text: The Greeks and Romans advanced water clock design to include the inflow clepsydra with an early feedback system, gearing, and escapement mechanism, which were connected to fanciful automata and resulted in improved accuracy. Further advances were made in Byzantium, Syria, and Mesopotamia, where increasingly accurate water clocks incorporated complex segmental and epicyclic gearing, water wheels, and programmability, advances which eventually made their way to Europe. Independently, the Chinese developed their own advanced water clocks, incorporating gears, escapement mechanisms, and water wheels, passing their ideas on to Korea and Japan.


title: Water clock

text: Some water clock designs were developed independently, and some knowledge was transferred through the spread of trade. These early water clocks were calibrated with a sundial. While never reaching a level of accuracy comparable to today's standards of timekeeping, the water clock was the most accurate and commonly used timekeeping device for millennia, until it was replaced by more accurate pendulum clocks in 17th-century Europe.


title: Water clock

text: The oldest water clock of which there is physical evidence dates to c. 1417–1379 BC, during the reign of Amenhotep III where it was used in the Temple of Amen-Re at Karnak. The oldest documentation of the water clock is the tomb inscription of the 16th century BC Egyptian court official Amenemhet, which identifies him as its inventor. These simple water clocks, which were of the outflow type, were stone vessels with sloping sides that allowed water to drip at a nearly constant rate from a small hole near the bottom. There were twelve separate columns with consistently spaced markings on the inside to measure the passage of "hours" as the water level reached them. The columns were for each of the twelve months to allow for the variations of the seasonal hours. These clocks were used by priests to determine the time at night so that the temple rites and sacrifices could be performed at the correct hour. These clocks may have been used in daylight as well.


title: Water clock

text: In Babylon, water clocks were of the outflow type and were cylindrical in shape. Use of the water clock as an aid to astronomical calculations dates back to the Old Babylonian period ("c." 2000 – "c." 1600 BC). While there are no surviving water clocks from the Mesopotamian region, most evidence of their existence comes from writings on clay tablets. Two collections of tablets, for example, are the "Enuma-Anu-Enlil" (1600–1200 BC) and the "MUL.APIN" (7th century BC). In these tablets, water clocks are used in reference to payment of the night and day watches (guards).


title: Water clock

text: These clocks were unique, as they did not have an indicator such as hands (as are typically used today) or grooved notches (as were used in Egypt). Instead, these clocks measured time "by the weight of water flowing from" it. The volume was measured in capacity units called "qa". The weight, "mana" or mina (the Greek unit for about one pound), is the weight of water in a water clock.


title: Water clock

text: In Babylonian times, time was measured with temporal hours. So, as seasons changed, so did the length of a day. "To define the length of a 'night watch' at the summer solstice, one had to pour two mana of water into a cylindrical clepsydra; its emptying indicated the end of the watch. One-sixth of mana had to be added each succeeding half-month. At the equinox, three mana had to be emptied in order to correspond to one watch, and four mana was emptied for each watch of the winter solstitial night."


title: Water clock

text: According to N. Kameswara Rao, pots excavated from the Indus Valley Pakistan site of Mohenjo-daro (around 2500 BC) may have been used as water clocks. They are tapered at the bottom, have a hole on the side, and are similar to the utensil used to perform "abhiṣeka" (ritual water pouring) on lingams. N. Narahari Achar and Subhash Kak suggest that the use of the water clock in ancient India is mentioned in the "Atharvaveda" from the 2nd millennium BC.


title: Water clock

text: The Jyotisha school, one of the six Vedanga disciplines, describes water clocks called "ghati" or "kapala" that measure time in units of "nadika" (around 24 minutes). A clepsydra in the form of a floating and sinking copper vessel is mentioned in the "Sürya Siddhānta" (5th century AD). At Nalanda, a Buddhist university, four hour intervals were measured by a water clock, which consisted of a similar copper bowl holding two large floats in a larger bowl filled with water. The bowl was filled with water from a small hole at its bottom; it sank when completely filled and was marked by the beating of a drum at daytime. The amount of water added varied with the seasons, and the clock was operated by students at the university.


title: Water clock

text: Descriptions of similar water clocks are also given in the "Pañca Siddhāntikā" by the polymath Varāhamihira (6th century AD), which adds further detail to the account given in the "Sürya Siddhānta". Further descriptions are recorded in the "Brāhmasphuṭa Siddhānta", by the mathematician Brahmagupta (7th century AD). A detailed description with measurements is also recorded by the astronomer Lalla (8th century AD), who describes the "ghati" as a hemispherical copper vessel with a hole that is fully filled after one "nadika".


title: Water clock

text: In ancient China, as well as throughout East Asia, water clocks were very important in the study of astronomy and astrology. The oldest written reference dates the use of the water clock in China to the 6th century BC. From about 200 BC onwards, the outflow clepsydra was replaced almost everywhere in China by the inflow type with an indicator-rod borne on a float. The Han dynasty philosopher and politician Huan Tan (40 BC – AD 30), a Secretary at the Court in charge of clepsydrae, wrote that he had to compare clepsydrae with sundials because of how temperature and humidity affected their accuracy, demonstrating that the effects of evaporation, as well as of temperature on the speed at which water flows, were known at this time. The liquid in water clocks was liable to freezing, and had to be kept warm with torches, a problem that was solved in 976 by the Chinese astronomer and engineer Zhang Sixun. His invention—a considerable improvement on Yi Xing's clock—used mercury instead of water. Mercury is a liquid at room temperature, and freezes at , lower than any air temperature normally found on Earth. Again, instead of using water, the early Ming Dynasty engineer Zhan Xiyuan (c. 1360–1380) created a sand-driven wheel clock, improved upon by Zhou Shuxue (c. 1530–1558).


title: Water clock

text: The use of clepsydrae to drive mechanisms illustrating astronomical phenomena began with the Han Dynasty polymath Zhang Heng (78–139) in 117, who also employed a waterwheel. Zhang Heng was the first in China to add an extra compensating tank between the reservoir and the inflow vessel, which solved the problem of the falling pressure head in the reservoir tank. Zhang's ingenuity led to the creation by the Tang dynasty mathematician and engineer Yi Xing (683–727) and Liang Lingzan in 725 of a clock driven by a waterwheel linkwork escapement mechanism. The same mechanism would be used by the Song dynasty polymath Su Song (1020–1101) in 1088 to power his astronomical clock tower, as well as a chain drive. Su Song's clock tower, over tall, possessed a bronze power-driven armillary sphere for observations, an automatically rotating celestial globe, and five front panels with doors that permitted the viewing of changing mannequins which rang bells or gongs, and held tablets indicating the hour or other special times of the day. In the 2000s, in Beijing's Drum Tower an outflow clepsydra is operational and displayed for tourists. It is connected to automata so that every quarter-hour a small brass statue of a man claps his cymbals.


title: Water clock

text: The use of water clocks in Persia or Greater Iran, especially in desert area of Iran such as Yazd, Isfahan, Zibad, and Gonabad, dates back to 500 BC. Later they were also used to determine the exact holy days of pre-Islamic religions, such as the "Nowruz", "Chelah", or "Yaldā" – the shortest, longest, and equal-length days and nights of the years. The water clocks used in Iran were one of the most practical ancient tools for timing the yearly calendar.


title: Water clock

text: The water clock, or "Fenjaan", was the most accurate and commonly used timekeeping device for calculating the amount or the time that a farmer must take water from a qanat or well for irrigation, until it was replaced by more accurate current clocks. Persian water clocks were a practical and useful and necessary tool for the qanat's shareholders to calculate the length of time they could divert water to their farms or Gardens. The qanat (Kariz) was the only water source for agriculture and irrigation in arid area so a just and fair water distribution was very important. Therefore, a very fair and clever old person was elected to be the manager of the water clock (called Mir Aab), and at least two full-time managers were needed to control and observe the number of Fenjans or Pengan (hours) and announce the exact time of the days and nights from sunrise to sunset because share holder usually were divided to the days owners and night owners.


title: Water clock

text: The Fenjaan consisted of a large pot full of water and a bowl with a small hole in the center. When the bowl became full of water, it would sink into the pot, and the manager would empty the bowl and again put it on the top of the water in the pot. He would record the number of times the bowl sank by putting small stones into a jar. The place where the clock was situated, and its managers, were collectively known as "khaneh Fenjaan" (times house). Usually this would be the top floor of a public-house, with west- and east-facing windows to show the time of Sunset and Sunrise. The Zibad Gonabad water clock was in use until 1965 when it was substituted by modern clocks.


title: Water clock

text: The word "clepsydra" comes from the Greek meaning "water thief". The Greeks considerably advanced the water clock by tackling the problem of the diminishing flow. They introduced several types of the inflow clepsydra, one of which included the earliest feedback control system. Ctesibius invented an indicator system typical for later clocks such as the dial and pointer. The Roman engineer Vitruvius described early alarm clocks, working with gongs or trumpets. A commonly used water clock was the simple outflow clepsydra. This small earthenware vessel had a hole in its side near the base. In both Greek and Roman times, this type of clepsydra was used in courts for allocating periods of time to speakers. In important cases, such as when a person's life was at stake, it was filled completely, but for more minor cases, only partially. If proceedings were interrupted for any reason, such as to examine documents, the hole in the clepsydra was stopped with wax until the speaker was able to resume his pleading.


title: Water clock

text: Some scholars suspect that the clepsydra may have been used as a stop-watch for imposing a time limit on clients' visits in Athenian brothels. Slightly later, in the early 3rd century BC, the Hellenistic physician Herophilos employed a portable clepsydra on his house visits in Alexandria for measuring his patients' pulse-beats. By comparing the rate by age group with empirically obtained data sets, he was able to determine the intensity of the disorder.


title: Water clock

text: Between 270 BC and AD 500, Hellenistic (Ctesibius, Hero of Alexandria, Archimedes) and Roman horologists and astronomers were developing more elaborate mechanized water clocks. The added complexity was aimed at regulating the flow and at providing fancier displays of the passage of time. For example, some water clocks rang bells and gongs, while others opened doors and windows to show figurines of people, or moved pointers, and dials. Some even displayed astrological models of the universe. The 3rd century BC engineer Philo of Byzantium referred in his works to water clocks already fitted with an escapement mechanism, the earliest known of its kind.


title: Water clock

text: The biggest achievement of the invention of clepsydrae during this time, however, was by Ctesibius with his incorporation of gears and a dial indicator to automatically show the time as the lengths of the days changed throughout the year, because of the temporal timekeeping used during his day. Also, a Greek astronomer, Andronicus of Cyrrhus, supervised the construction of his Horologion, known today as the Tower of the Winds, in the Athens marketplace (or agora) in the first half of the 1st century BC. This octagonal clocktower showed scholars and shoppers both sundials and mechanical hour indicators. It featured a 24-hour mechanized clepsydra and indicators for the eight winds from which the tower got its name, and it displayed the seasons of the year and astrological dates and periods.


title: Water clock

text: In the medieval Islamic world (632-1280), the use of water clocks has its roots from Archimedes during the rise of Alexandria in Egypt and continues on through Byzantium. The water clocks by the Arabic engineer Al-Jazari, however, are credited for going "well beyond anything" that had preceded them. In al-Jazari's 1206 treatise, he describes one of his water clocks, the elephant clock. The clock recorded the passage of temporal hours, which meant that the rate of flow had to be changed daily to match the uneven length of days throughout the year. To accomplish this, the clock had two tanks, the top tank was connected to the time indicating mechanisms and the bottom was connected to the flow control regulator. Basically, at daybreak, the tap was opened and water flowed from the top tank to the bottom tank via a float regulator that maintained a constant pressure in the receiving tank.


title: Water clock

text: The most sophisticated water-powered astronomical clock was Al-Jazari's castle clock, considered by some to be an early example of a programmable analog computer, in 1206. It was a complex device that was about high, and had multiple functions alongside timekeeping. It included a display of the zodiac and the solar and lunar orbits, and a pointer in the shape of the crescent moon which traveled across the top of a gateway, moved by a hidden cart and causing automatic doors to open, each revealing a mannequin, every hour. It was possible to re-program the length of day and night in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year, and it also featured five musician automata who automatically play music when moved by levers operated by a hidden camshaft attached to a water wheel. Other components of the castle clock included a main reservoir with a float, a float chamber and flow regulator, plate and valve trough, two pulleys, crescent disc displaying the zodiac, and two falcon automata dropping balls into vases.


title: Water clock

text: The first water clocks to employ complex segmental and epicyclic gearing was invented earlier by the Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in Islamic Iberia c. 1000. His water clocks were driven by water wheels, as was also the case for several Chinese water clocks in the 11th century. Comparable water clocks were built in Damascus and Fez. The latter (Dar al-Magana) remains until today and its mechanism has been reconstructed. The first European clock to employ these complex gears was the astronomical clock created by Giovanni de Dondi in c. 1365. Like the Chinese, Arab engineers at the time also developed an escapement mechanism which they employed in some of their water clocks. The escapement mechanism was in the form of a constant-head system, while heavy floats were used as weights.


title: Water clock

text: In 1434 during the Choson (or Joseon) Dynasty, Jang Yeong-sil (also variously transcribed Chang Yongsil or Jang Young Sil) (장영실 in Korean), Palace Guard and later Chief Court Engineer, constructed the Jagyeongnu (self-striking water clock or striking clepsydra) for King Sejong.


title: Water clock

text: What made the Jagyeongnu self-striking (or automatic) was the use of jack-work mechanisms, by which three wooden figures (jacks) struck objects to signal the time. This innovation no longer required the reliance of human workers, known as "rooster men", to constantly replenish it.


title: Water clock

text: The uniqueness of the clock was its capability to announce dual-times automatically with both visual and audible signals. Jang developed a signal conversion technique that made it possible to measure analog time and announce digital time simultaneously as well as to separate the water mechanisms from the ball-operated striking mechanisms. The conversion device was called "pangmok", and was placed above the inflow vessel that measured the time, the first device of its kind in the world. Thus, the "Striking Palace Clepsydra" is the first hydro-mechanically engineered dual-time clock in the history of horology.