title: Bias of an estimator

text: Most bayesians are rather unconcerned about unbiasedness (at least in the formal sampling-theory sense above) of their estimates. For example, Gelman and coauthors (1995) write: "From a Bayesian perspective, the principle of unbiasedness is reasonable in the limit of large samples, but otherwise it is potentially misleading."


title: Bias of an estimator

text: Fundamentally, the difference between the Bayesian approach and the sampling-theory approach above is that in the sampling-theory approach the parameter is taken as fixed, and then probability distributions of a statistic are considered, based on the predicted sampling distribution of the data. For a Bayesian, however, it is the "data" which are known, and fixed, and it is the unknown parameter for which an attempt is made to construct a probability distribution, using Bayes' theorem:


title: Bias of an estimator

text: Here the second term, the likelihood of the data given the unknown parameter value θ, depends just on the data obtained and the modelling of the data generation process. However a Bayesian calculation also includes the first term, the prior probability for θ, which takes account of everything the analyst may know or suspect about θ "before" the data comes in. This information plays no part in the sampling-theory approach; indeed any attempt to include it would be considered "bias" away from what was pointed to purely by the data. To the extent that Bayesian calculations include prior information, it is therefore essentially inevitable that their results will not be "unbiased" in sampling theory terms.


title: Bias of an estimator

text: But the results of a Bayesian approach can differ from the sampling theory approach even if the Bayesian tries to adopt an "uninformative" prior.


title: Bias of an estimator

text: For example, consider again the estimation of an unknown population variance σ of a Normal distribution with unknown mean, where it is desired to optimise "c" in the expected loss function


title: Bias of an estimator

text: A standard choice of uninformative prior for this problem is the Jeffreys prior, formula_65, which is equivalent to adopting a rescaling-invariant flat prior for ln(σ).


title: Bias of an estimator

text: One consequence of adopting this prior is that "S"/σ remains a pivotal quantity, i.e. the probability distribution of "S"/σ depends only on "S"/σ, independent of the value of "S" or σ:


title: Bias of an estimator

text: — when the expectation is taken over the probability distribution of σ given "S", as it is in the Bayesian case, rather than "S" given σ, one can no longer take σ as a constant and factor it out. The consequence of this is that, compared to the sampling-theory calculation, the Bayesian calculation puts more weight on larger values of σ, properly taking into account (as the sampling-theory calculation cannot) that under this squared-loss function the consequence of underestimating large values of σ is more costly in squared-loss terms than that of overestimating small values of σ.


title: Bias of an estimator

text: The worked-out Bayesian calculation gives a scaled inverse chi-squared distribution with "n" − 1 degrees of freedom for the posterior probability distribution of σ. The expected loss is minimised when "cnS" = <σ>; this occurs when "c" = 1/("n" − 3).


title: Bias of an estimator

text: Even with an uninformative prior, therefore, a Bayesian calculation may not give the same expected-loss minimising result as the corresponding sampling-theory calculation.


title: Reducing agent

text: In chemistry, a reducing agent (also known as a reductant, reducer, or electron donor) is a chemical species that "donates" an electron to an (called the , , , or ).


title: Reducing agent

text: Examples of substances that are commonly reducing agents include the Earth metals, formic acid, oxalic acid, and sulfite compounds.


title: Reducing agent

text: In their pre-reaction states, reducers have extra electrons (that is, they are by themselves reduced) and oxidizers lack electrons (that is, they are by themselves oxidized). This is commonly expressed in terms of their oxidation states. An agent's oxidation state describes its degree of loss of electrons, where the higher the oxidation state then the fewer electrons it has. So initially, prior to the reaction, a reducing agent is typically in one of its lower possible oxidation states; its oxidation state increases during the reaction while that of the oxidizer decreases.


title: Reducing agent

text: Thus in a redox reaction, the agent whose oxidation state increases, that "loses/donates electrons", that "is oxidized", and that "reduces" is called the or , while the agent whose oxidation state decreases, that "gains/accepts/receives electrons", that "is reduced", and that "oxidizes" is called the or .


title: Reducing agent

text: The oxygen () is being reduced, so it is the oxidizing agent. The glucose () is being oxidized, so it is the reducing agent.


title: Reducing agent

text: In organic chemistry, reduction usually refers to the addition of hydrogen to a molecule. For example, the oxidizing agent benzene is reduced to cyclohexane by hydrogenation:


title: Reducing agent

text: The reducing agent in this reaction is ferrocyanide (). It donates an electron, becoming oxidized to ferricyanide (). Simultaneously, that electron is received by the oxidizer chlorine (), which is reduced to chloride ().


title: Reducing agent

text: Strong reducing agents easily lose (or donate) electrons. An atom with a relatively large atomic radius tends to be a better reductant. In such species, the distance from the nucleus to the valence electrons is so long that these electrons are not strongly attracted. These elements tend to be strong reducing agents. Good reducing agents tend to consist of atoms with a low electronegativity, which is the ability of an atom or molecule to attract bonding electrons, and species with relatively small ionization energies serve as good reducing agents too.


title: Reducing agent

text: The measure of a material's ability to reduce is known as its reduction potential. The table below shows a few reduction potentials, which can be changed to oxidation potentials by reversing the sign. Reducing agents can be ranked by increasing strength by ranking their reduction potentials. Reducers donate electrons to (that is, "reduce") oxidizing agents, which are said to "be reduced by" the reducer. The reducing agent is stronger when it has a more negative reduction potential and weaker when it has a more positive reduction potential. The more positive the reduction potential the greater the species' affinity for electrons and tendency to be reduced (that is, to receive electrons). The following table provides the reduction potentials of the indicated reducing agent at 25 °C. For example, among sodium (Na), chromium (Cr), cuprous (Cu) and chloride (Cl), it is Na that is the strongest reducing agent while Cl is the weakest; said differently, Na is the weakest oxidizing agent in this list while Cl is the strongest.


title: Reducing agent

text: Common reducing agents include metals potassium, calcium, barium, sodium and magnesium, and also compounds that contain the hydride H ion, those being NaH, LiH, LiAlH and CaH.


title: Reducing agent

text: Some elements and compounds can be both reducing or oxidizing agents. Hydrogen gas is a reducing agent when it reacts with non-metals and an oxidizing agent when it reacts with metals.


title: Reducing agent

text: Hydrogen (whose reduction potential is 0.0) acts as an oxidizing agent because it accepts an electron donation from the reducing agent lithium (whose reduction potential is -3.04), which causes Li to be oxidized and hydrogen to be reduced.


title: Reducing agent

text: Hydrogen acts as a reducing agent because it donates its electrons to fluorine, which allows fluorine to be reduced.


title: Reducing agent

text: Reducing agents and oxidizing agents are the ones responsible for corrosion, which is the "degradation of metals as a result of electrochemical activity". Corrosion requires an anode and cathode to take place. The anode is an element that loses electrons (reducing agent), thus oxidation always occurs in the anode, and the cathode is an element that gains electrons (oxidizing agent), thus reduction always occurs in the cathode. Corrosion occurs whenever there's a difference in oxidation potential. When this is present, the anode metal begins deteriorating, given there is an electrical connection and the presence of an electrolyte.


title: Reducing agent

text: Historically, reduction referred to the removal of oxygen from a compound, hence the name 'reduction'. An example of this phenomenon occurred during the Great Oxidation Event, in which biologically−produced molecular oxygen (dioxygen (), an oxidizer and electron recipient) was added to the early Earth's atmosphere, which was originally a weakly reducing atmosphere containing reducing gases like methane () and carbon monoxide () (along with other electron donors) and practically no oxygen because any that was produced would react with these or other reducers (particularly with iron dissolved in sea water), resulting in their .


title: Reducing agent

text: By using water as a reducing agent, aquatic photosynthesizing cyanobacteria produced this molecular oxygen as a waste product. This initially oxidized the ocean's dissolved ferrous iron (Fe(II) − meaning iron in its +2 oxidation state) to form insoluble ferric iron oxides such as Iron(III) oxide (Fe(II) lost an electron to the oxidizer and became Fe(III) − meaning iron in its +3 oxidation state) that precipitated down to the ocean floor to form banded iron formations, thereby removing the oxygen (and the iron). The rate of production of oxygen eventually exceeded the availability of reducing materials that removed oxygen, which ultimately led Earth to gain a strongly oxidizing atmosphere containing abundant oxygen (like the modern atmosphere). The modern sense of donating electrons is a generalization of this idea, acknowledging that other components can play a similar chemical role to oxygen.


title: Reducing agent

text: In the above equation, the Iron (Fe) has an oxidation number of 0 before and 3+ after the reaction. For oxygen (O) the oxidation number began as 0 and decreased to 2−. These changes can be viewed as two "half-reactions" that occur concurrently:


title: Reducing agent

text: Iron (Fe) has been oxidized because the oxidation number increased. Iron is the reducing agent because it gave electrons to the oxygen (O).


title: Reducing agent

text: Oxygen (O) has been reduced because the oxidation number has decreased and is the oxidizing agent because it took electrons from iron (Fe).


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Matthew James Doherty (born 16 January 1992) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Republic of Ireland national team.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty was signed by Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2010, who played his Irish club Bohemians during pre-season. He gained senior football experience with loan spells at Hibernian and Bury, before beginning to regularly feature in Wolves' first team. Doherty was to be a Wolves player for ten years (2010–2020) and make 302 appearances for the club in all competitions. After representing Republic of Ireland U21s, Doherty received his first call-up to the senior Republic of Ireland squad in 2016.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty was spotted by Wolverhampton Wanderers while playing for Bohemians in a pre-season game against them in July 2010. Despite never having played a first team game for Bohs, he was invited for a trial and soon signed a two-year deal (with the option of a further year) to move to the English club for a reported £75,000 fee.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: The defender made his Wolves debut on 8 January 2011 in an FA Cup tie against Doncaster Rovers, before making his Premier League debut on 24 September 2011 at Liverpool.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: In January 2012, Doherty was loaned to Scottish Premier League club Hibernian for the latter part of the 2011–12 season. Here, he played in every defensive position, although his preference was right-back. After making his debut in a 1–0 victory against Kilmarnock on 4 February in the Scottish Cup, he went on to make a total of 17 appearances for the club, in which he scored twice. His final game of the loan spell was the 2012 Scottish Cup Final, against Edinburgh derby rivals Hearts, where Hibs lost 1–5. Doherty later apologised for the team's performance.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: In October 2012, Doherty was again loaned out, joining League One club Bury in a three-month deal. Two days later, Doherty made his debut for Bury, in a 0–1 defeat to Swindon Town, in the first of 22 appearances for the club. He established himself in the first team, playing in the right-back position and earning praise from manager Kevin Blackwell. However financial troubles at Bury meant that their loan players, such as Doherty, were sent back to their parent clubs in January 2013.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: With Dean Saunders appointed Wolves manager in January 2013, Doherty was soon promoted to becoming the club's regular right-back and he featured throughout the final months of the 2012–13 season as the team battled unsuccessfully to avoid a second consecutive relegation. Under Saunders' successor, Kenny Jackett, Doherty retained his place in the Wolves' team and, in September 2013, signed a new contract.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty's goal against Fulham at Molineux during the 2015–16 campaign was awarded the club's best goal of the season. On 26 September 2017, he signed a new contract keeping him at Wolves until the summer of 2021. Towards the end of the 2017–18 campaign, Wolves were promoted back to the Premier League after a six-year absence.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty scored his first Premier League goal for Wolves (on his ninth appearance in the Premier League) on 6 October 2018 at Crystal Palace as the team won 1–0. Two days later it was announced that Doherty had won the Professional Footballers' Association Fans' Premier League Player of the Month award for September 2018, becoming only the fourth Ireland player to win this award in the history of the Premier League.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty scored his second Premier League goal for Wolves on his 200th league appearance for the club on 30 November 2018 at Cardiff City in a 2–1 defeat. The following 15 February, he signed a new contract that would keep him at the club until the summer of 2023.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty scored his fourth Premier League goal, and his first Premier League goal to be scored at Molineux, in a 3–1 win over Arsenal, Wolves's first win against Arsenal since 1979, on 24 April 2019. That 8 August, he scored the team's first goal in a 4–0 win on his debut appearance in European competition in the UEFA Europa League Qualifying Third Round, 1st Leg, against FC Pyunik in Yerevan, Armenia.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Writing in "The Guardian" in December 2019, Paul Doyle declared Doherty Wolves' best player of the decade. He marked his 300th appearance for the club (in all competitions) in their last league game of the 2019–20 season away to Chelsea on 26 July 2020. The 302nd and final appearance of his ten-year spell, was in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League quarter-final against Sevilla on 11 August.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: On 30 August 2020, Doherty was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £13.4 million with no add-ons and signed on a four-year deal . As a life-long Arsenal fan, Doherty had expressed his love of Tottenham's local rivals on social media, on signing for Tottenham the player and club made a light-hearted video about the deletion of these historic comments. He made his debut on 13 September in a 1–0 home defeat by Everton.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty battled for his right-back place against Serge Aurier. On 2 January 2021, he was sent off at the end of a 3–0 home win over Leeds United.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: On 26 February 2022, Doherty scored his first goal for Tottenham in a Premier League clash against Leeds United at Elland Road.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Tottenham eventually won the game 4–0 in which Son Heung-min and Harry Kane also became the Premier League's deadliest partnership in terms of goals and assists for each other. On 9 April 2022, Doherty suffered a medial collateral ligament injury in a win over Aston Villa that kept him out of action for the rest of the season.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty played for the Republic of Ireland national under-19 football team. In May 2012, he was put on standby for the under-21s.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: Doherty received his first call-up to the senior Republic of Ireland squad on 11 March 2016, for Ireland's friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia. He made his senior debut on 23 March 2018, in a 1–0 defeat to Turkey, coming on as a substitute for captain Séamus Coleman. He featured in an Ireland starting XI for the first time in the Republic's UEFA Nations League match with Denmark in Dublin on 13 October 2018, just days after becoming only the fourth Republic of Ireland player in the history of the Premier League to win the Professional Footballers' Association Fans' Premier League Player of the Month award.


title: Matt Doherty (footballer, born 1992)

text: On 16 November 2020, the Football Association of Ireland announced that Doherty had tested positive for COVID-19 after playing a full game against Wales at the Cardiff City Stadium. The announcement also included James McClean's positive result.


title: Millicent Martin

text: Millicent Mary Lillian Martin (born 8 June 1934) is an English actress, singer, and comedian. She was the lone female singer of topical songs on the weekly BBC Television satire show "That Was the Week That Was" known as TW3 (1962–1963), and won a BAFTA TV Award in 1964. For her work on Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for "Side by Side by Sondheim" (1977) and "King of Hearts" (1978), both for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Other television roles include her recurring role as Gertrude Moon in the NBC sitcom "Frasier" (2000–04) and Joan Margaret in "Grace & Frankie" (2017-2022).


title: Millicent Martin

text: Early clippings show Martin as one of the cast in the pantomime "Dick Whittington" starring Jimmy Hanley at the Granada Tooting in December 1949 The following year she was in "Aladdin" at the Pavilion Bournemouth in December 1950 and in May 1951 she appeared in "The Happiest Days of Your Life" at the Playhouse, Oxford playing an "enterprising" pupil. December 1951, saw her in the pantomime "Mother Goose" at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham.


title: Millicent Martin

text: She attended the Italia Conti theatre school and not long after leaving the school, she made her Broadway debut alongside Julie Andrews in "The Boy Friend" in September 1954. She remained in the show until November 1955.


title: Millicent Martin

text: In December 1964 she played the role of Tweeny in a musical version of the Admirable Crichton with Kenneth More in London's West End, the show called "Our Man Crichton".


title: Millicent Martin

text: Her additional New York theatre credits include taking over as Dorothy Brock in the original Broadway production of "42nd Street" in the 1980s and performing the revue "Side by Side by Sondheim" with Julia McKenzie and David Kernan in 1977, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She received a second Tony nomination for the musical "King of Hearts" (1978).


title: Millicent Martin

text: In London, Martin starred with Paul Scofield and James Kenney in "Expresso Bongo" at the Saville Theatre. In 1959, she had also appeared in "The Crooked Mile". Also in West End, she starred opposite Jim Dale in "The Card" in 1975.


title: Millicent Martin

text: In 1988, Martin joined the London production of the Sondheim musical "Follies", starring with Eartha Kitt.


title: Millicent Martin

text: More recently, in 2008, she appeared at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park with Topol, Linda Thorson and Lisa O'Hare in the Lerner & Lowe musical, "Gigi".


title: Millicent Martin

text: During the early 1960s, Martin was the resident singer of topical songs on the British weekly satire show "That Was The Week That Was" (1962–1963). Martin won a BAFTA TV Award for Light Entertainment Personality in 1964. One of the songs she sang on the show, the John F. Kennedy tribute "In the Summer of His Years", was released as a single and 'bubbled under' the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart at No 104 in 1963 (but was outcharted by a cover version by Connie Francis, which reached No 46). She has also released recordings in Swedish, such as the 7" single "Om du nånsin skulle ändra dej".


title: Millicent Martin

text: Martin had her own BBC television series between 1964 and 1966, titled "Mainly Millicent" for the first two series, and shortened to "Millicent" for the third and final series. For her work in this series she won the TV Society Award. In one episode, Martin and guest star Roger Moore performed a comedy skit in which Moore played secret agent James Bond some years before he was cast in the role. In the mid-1960s she guested, alongside Pete Murray and Kenneth Williams, in an edition of "Juke Box Jury".


title: Millicent Martin

text: In 1969, Sir Lew Grade wanted to make a comedy film series, starring Martin, that would appeal to both American and British audiences. He sent six comedy sketches of Martin to producer Sheldon Leonard, who came up with the premise of "From a Bird's Eye View". The series was not a success and was cancelled after 16 episodes had been filmed.


title: Millicent Martin

text: In 1977, on Jubilee Day, she appeared in a gala edition of BBC TV's "The Good Old Days" to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee, performing in a double act with Julia McKenzie.


title: Millicent Martin

text: Martin appeared on $100,000 Pyramid in 1987 during the second week of the show's longest lasting tournament.


title: Millicent Martin

text: Martin appeared as Gladys Moon in 13 episodes of "Moon and Son", a 1992 BBC detective series created by Robert Banks Stewart, and co-starring John Michie.


title: Millicent Martin

text: In 2005, she had a small part in the film, "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" which starred Joan Plowright.


title: Millicent Martin

text: Her later television roles include Gertrude Moon, Daphne Moon's Mancunian mother, in the American sitcom "Frasier". She has worked for the Disney Channel, starring in the shows "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody", "Jonas" and in the film "Return to Halloweentown". Other performances include guest roles in "The Drew Carey Show", "Will & Grace", "Newhart" and "Days of Our Lives". She also had a small role on an episode of "Gilmore Girls" and a key role in an episode of "Modern Family".


title: Millicent Martin

text: In 2011, she guest-starred opposite her former "Frasier" daughter, Jane Leeves, in the TV Land series "Hot in Cleveland". She has also had an appearance in the fourth season of "Chuck" as the mother of Hartley Winterbottom, who was given the first Intersect prototype and became Alexei Volkoff; she also guest-starred on an episode of the fourth season of "Castle" as a theatre critic who wrote a harsh review of a performance given by Castle's mother.


title: Millicent Martin

text: In the mid-1960s, Martin appeared in British feature films "Nothing But the Best" (1964), "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (1965), "Stop the World – I Want to Get Off" (1966), and "Alfie" (1966).


title: Millicent Martin

text: During the early 1960s Martin lived adjacent to Abbey Road studios. She was so close that she could occasionally hear producer George Martin speaking to the artists recording during a session.


title: Millicent Martin

text: She was married to the pop singer Ronnie Carroll from 1958 until 1965, and subsequently to actor Norman Eshley, but both marriages ended in divorce. She has been married to American Marc Alexander since 1978, and is now a permanent resident of the United States.


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: Neo-psychedelia is a diverse genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the sounds of 1960s psychedelia, either updating or copying the approaches from that era. Originating in the 1970s, it has occasionally seen mainstream pop success but is typically explored within alternative rock scenes. It initially developed as an outgrowth of the British post-punk scene, where it was also known as acid punk. After post-punk, neo-psychedelia flourished into a more widespread and international movement of artists who applied the spirit of psychedelic rock to new sounds and techniques.


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: Neo-psychedelia may also include forays into psychedelic pop, jangly guitar rock, heavily distorted free-form jams, or recording experiments. A wave of British alternative rock in the 1980s spawned the subgenres dream pop and shoegazing.


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: Neo-psychedelic acts borrowed a variety of elements from 1960s psychedelic music. Some emulated the psychedelic pop of bands like the Beatles and early Pink Floyd, others adopted Byrds-influenced guitar rock, or distorted free-form jams and sonic experimentalism of the 1960s. Some neo-psychedelia has been explicitly focused on drug use and experiences, and like acid house of the same age, projects transitory, ephemeral, and trance-like experiences. Other bands have used neo-psychedelia to accompany surreal or political lyrics.


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: In the view of author Erik Morse: "The distinctions between British and American neo-psychedelia were best described as the differences between primitivism and primalism. The sounds of American neo-psychedelia emphasized the cryptic margins of avant-rock, incorporating evanescent textures over an immutable bassline, producing a 'heavy' metallic ambience, contra-distinct to the sing-song filigree of British psychedelia".


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: Psychedelic rock declined towards the end of the 1960s, as bands broke up or moved into new forms of music, including heavy metal music and progressive rock. Like the psychedelic developments of the late 1960s, punk rock and new wave in the 1970s challenged the rock music establishment. At the time, "new wave" was a term used interchangeably with the nascent punk rock explosion. In 1978, journalist Greg Shaw categorized a subset of new wave music as "neo-psychedelia", citing Devo, "to an extent ... [its] first major indication ... [they are] the new darling of the new wave press and opinion-makers, yet nothing about it is remotely 'punk'". Shaw wrote that in England, neo-psychedelia was known as "acid punk", noting "self-advertised 'psychedelic punk' band, the Soft Boys, [are] being hotly pursued by several major labels."


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: By 1978–79, new wave was considered independent from punk and post-punk (the latter was initially known as "new musick"). Author Clinton Heylin marks the second half of year 1977 and the first half of year 1978 as the ""true" starting-point for English post-punk". Some of the scene's bands, including the Soft Boys, the Teardrop Explodes, Wah!, and Echo & the Bunnymen, became major figures of neo-psychedelia. In the early 1980s, Siouxsie and the Banshees crafted a "exotic neo-psychedelic pop" with the arrival of guitarist John McGeoch.


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: The early 1980s Paisley Underground movement followed neo-psychedelia. Originating in Los Angeles, the movement saw a number of young bands who were influenced by the psychedelia of the late 1960s and all took different elements of it. The term "Paisley Underground" was later expanded to include others from outside the city.


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: In the 1980s and 1990s there were occasional mainstream acts that dabbled in neo-psychedelia, including Prince's mid-1980s work and some of Lenny Kravitz's 1990s output, but neo-psychedelia has mainly been the domain of alternative and indie rock bands. The late 1980s would see the birth of shoegazing, which, among other influences, took inspiration from 1960s psychedelia. Reynolds referred to this movement as "a rash of blurry, neo-psychedelic bands" in a 1992 article in "The Observer".


title: Neo-psychedelia

text: AllMusic states: "Aside from the early-'80s Paisley Underground movement and the Elephant 6 collective of the late 1990s, most subsequent neo-psychedelia came from isolated eccentrics and revivalists, not cohesive scenes." They go on to cite what they consider some of the more prominent artists: the Church, Nick Saloman's Bevis Frond, Spacemen 3, Robyn Hitchcock, Mercury Rev, the Flaming Lips, and Super Furry Animals. According to Treblezines Jeff Telrich: "Primal Scream made [neo-psychedelia] dancefloor ready. The Flaming Lips and Spiritualized took it to orchestral realms. And Animal Collective—well, they kinda did their own thing."


title: Lee Seo-jin

text: Lee Seo-jin (born January 30, 1971) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for the reality shows "Three Meals a Day" and "Grandpa Over Flowers". As an actor, he came to prominence with his leading roles in television series "Damo" (2003), "Phoenix" (2004), "Lovers" (2006), "Yi San" (2007) and "Marriage Contract" (2016).


title: Lee Seo-jin

text: Lee Seo-jin made his acting debut in 1999 in the television series "House Above the Waves". After several supporting roles on TV, he rose to fame in the 2003 hit period drama "Damo", followed by the also popular contemporary drama "Phoenix" in 2004. Lee then landed his first big screen leading role in the 2005 action blockbuster "Shadowless Sword".


title: Lee Seo-jin

text: Lee played a vampire in the cable series "Freeze" (2006), a gangster in "Lovers" (2006), and a criminal profiler in "Soul" (2009). But he would become best known for his portrayals of Korean historical characters King Jeongjo of Joseon in "Yi San" (2007), and General Gyebaek of Baekje in "Gyebaek" (2011).


title: Lee Seo-jin

text: Lee comes from a family with strong ties in the financial sector, and believed to be involved in the banking, transportation and tourism industries, among others. He has a Business Management degree from the New York University Stern School of Business. In 2011, Lee joined the company Ask Veritas Assets Management, which specializes in intellectual property and real estate investment. He was appointed as managing director for the firm's second global contents division.


title: Lee Seo-jin

text: A regular volunteer of Habitat for Humanity since 2006, he was appointed its Goodwill Ambassador for Korea in 2008. Together with the Nippon Foundation and South Korean food franchise Genesis, Lee established the "Let's Tree Fund" in 2010 to conduct reforestation activities. In 2011, Lee joined relief efforts for victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Like many celebrities, Lee also publicly protested the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors.


title: Road train

text: A road train, land train or long combination vehicle (LCV) is a trucking vehicle used to move road freight more efficiently than semi-trailer trucks. It consists of two or more trailers or semi-trailers hauled by a prime mover.


title: Road train

text: Early road trains consisted of traction engines pulling multiple wagons. The first identified road trains operated into South Australia's Flinders Ranges from the Port Augusta area in the mid-19th century. They displaced bullock teams for the carriage of minerals to port and were, in turn, superseded by railways.


title: Road train

text: During the Crimean War, a traction engine was used to pull multiple open trucks. By 1898 steam traction engine trains with up to four wagons were employed in military manoeuvres in England.


title: Road train

text: In 1900, John Fowler & Co. provided armoured road trains for use by the British Armed Forces in the Second Boer War. Lord Kitchener stated that he had around 45 steam road trains at his disposal.


title: Road train

text: A road train devised by Captain Charles Renard of the French Engineering Corps was displayed at the 1903 Paris Salon. After his death, Daimler, which had acquired the rights, attempted to market it in the United Kingdom. Four of these vehicles were successfully delivered to Queensland, Australia, before the company ceased production upon the start of World War I.


title: Road train

text: In the 1930s/40s, the government of Australia operated an AEC Roadtrain to transport freight and supplies into the Northern Territory, replacing the Afghan camel trains that had been trekking through the deserts since the late 19th century. This truck pulled two or three Dyson four-axle self-tracking trailers. At , the AEC was grossly underpowered by today's standards, and drivers and offsiders (a partner or assistant) routinely froze in winter and sweltered in summer due to the truck's open cab design and the position of the engine radiator, with its cooling fan, behind the seats.


title: Road train

text: Australian Kurt Johannsen, a bush mechanic, is recognised as the inventor of the modern road train. After transporting stud bulls to an outback property, Johannsen was challenged to build a truck to carry 100 head of cattle instead of the original load of 20. Provided with financing of about 2000 pounds and inspired by the tracking abilities of the Government roadtrain, Johannsen began construction. Two years later his first road train was running.


title: Road train

text: Johannsen's first road train consisted of a United States Army World War II surplus Diamond-T tank carrier, nicknamed "Bertha", and two home-built self-tracking trailers. Both wheel sets on each trailer could steer, and therefore could negotiate the tight and narrow tracks and creek crossings that existed throughout Central Australia in the earlier part of the 20th century. Freighter Trailers in Australia viewed this improved invention and went on to build self-tracking trailers for Kurt and other customers, and went on to become innovators in transport machinery for Australia.


title: Road train

text: This first example of the modern road train, along with the AEC Government Roadtrain, forms part of the huge collection at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs, Northern Territory.


title: Road train

text: The term "road train" is used in Australia. In contrast with a more common semi-trailer towing one trailer or semi-trailer, the prime mover of a road train hauls two or more trailers or semi-trailers. Australia has the longest and heaviest road-legal road trains in the world, weighing up to . They transport freight across some of the harshest environments on Earth.


title: Road train

text: Double (two-trailer) road train combinations are allowed on some roads in most states of Australia, including specified approaches to the ports and industrial areas of Adelaide, South Australia and Perth, Western Australia. A double road train should not be confused with a B-double, which is allowed access to most of the country and in all major cities.


title: Road train

text: In South Australia, B-triples up to and two-trailer road trains to were only permitted to travel on a small number of approved routes in the north and west of the state, including access to Adelaide's north-western suburban industrial and export areas such as Port Adelaide, Gillman and Outer Harbour via Salisbury Highway, Port Wakefield Road and Augusta Highway before 2017. A project named "Improving Road Transport for the Agriculture Industry" added of key routes permitted to operate vehicles over in 2015–2018.


title: Road train

text: Triple (three-trailer) road trains operate in western New South Wales, western Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with the last three states also allowing AB-quads (B double with two additional trailers coupled behind). Darwin is the only capital city in the world where triples and quads are allowed to within of the central business district (CBD).


title: Road train

text: Strict regulations regarding licensing, registration, weights, and experience apply to all operators of road trains throughout Australia.


title: Road train

text: Road trains are used for transporting all manner of materials: common examples are livestock, fuel, mineral ores, and general freight. Their cost-effective transport has played a significant part in the economic development of remote areas; some communities are totally reliant on regular service.


title: Road train

text: The multiple dog-trailers are unhooked, the dollies removed and then connected individually to multiple trucks at "assembly" yards when the road train gets close to populated areas.


title: Road train

text: When the flat-top trailers of a road train need to be transported empty, it is common practice to stack them. This is commonly referred to as "doubled-up" or "doubling-up". Sometimes, if many trailers are required to be moved at one time, they will be triple-stacked, or "tripled-up".


title: Road train

text: Higher Mass Limits (HML) Schemes are now in all jurisdictions in Australia, allowing trucks to carry additional weight beyond general mass limits. Some roads in some states regularly allowing up to 4 trailers at long and .


title: Road train

text: In the United States, trucks on public roads are limited to two trailers (two and a dolly to connect; the limit is end to end). Some states allow three trailers, although triples are usually restricted to less populous states such as Idaho, Oregon, and Montana, plus the Ohio Turnpike and Indiana East–West Toll Road. Triples are used for long-distance less-than-truckload freight hauling (in which case the trailers are shorter than a typical single-unit trailer) or resource hauling in the interior west (such as ore or aggregate). Triples are sometimes marked with "LONG LOAD" banners both front and rear. "Turnpike doubles"—tractors towing two full-length trailers—are allowed on the New York Thruway and Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90), Florida's Turnpike, Kansas Turnpike (Kansas City - Wichita route) as well as the Ohio and Indiana toll roads. Colorado allows what are known as "Rocky Mountain Doubles" which is one full length trailer and an additional trailer. The term "road train" is not commonly used in the United States; "turnpike train" has been used, generally in a pejorative sense.


title: Road train

text: In the western United States LCVs are allowed on many Interstate highways. The only LCVs allowed nationwide are STAA doubles.


title: Road train

text: In Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and some roads in Norway, trucks with trailers are allowed to be long. In Finland, a length of has been allowed since January 2019, although the longest vehicles measure , because of cornering regulations.


title: Road train

text: Elsewhere in the European Union, the limit is (Norway ). The trucks are of a cab-over-engine design, with a flat front and a high floor, about above ground. The Scandinavian countries are less densely populated than the other EU countries, and distances, especially in Finland and Sweden, are long. Until the late 1960s, vehicle length was unlimited, giving rise to long vehicles to cost effectively handle goods. As traffic increased, truck lengths became more of a concern and they were limited, albeit at a more generous level than in the rest of Europe.


title: Road train

text: In the United Kingdom in 2009, a two-year desk study of Longer Heavier Vehicles (LHVs), including up to 11-axle, long, combinations, ruled out all road-train-type vehicles for the foreseeable future.


title: Road train

text: In 2010, Sweden was performing tests on log-hauling trucks, weighing up to and measuring and haulers for two 40 ft containers, measuring in total. In 2015, a pilot began in Finland to test a 104-tonne timber lorry which was and had 13 axles. Testing of the special lorry was limited to a predefined route in northern Finland


title: Road train

text: Since 2015, Spain has permitted B-doubles with a length of up to and weighing up to 60 tonnes to travel on certain routes.


title: Road train

text: For Mexico the road trains exist in a very small form due to the highway sizes and streets in the principal cities, and there are only permitted 2 trailers joined with a pup or dolly created for this purpose, recently the regulations tend to be more severe and strict to avoid overloading and frequent accident chance, to adhere to the federal rules of transportation. Truck drivers must obtain a certificate to certify that the driver is capable to manipulate and drive that type of vehicle.


title: Road train

text: All the tractor vehicles that make road train type transport in the country (along with the normal security requirements) need to have visual warnings like...


title: Road train

text: Some major cargo enterprises in the country use this form to cut costs of carrying all type of goods in some regions where another form of transportation are so expensive to improve it due to the difficult geography of the country.


title: Road train

text: The Mexican road train equivalent form in Australian Standard is the A-Double form, the difference is that the Mexican road trains can be hauled with a long distance tractor truck.


title: Road train

text: In Zimbabwe, they are only used in one highway, Ngezi - Makwiro road. They make use of 42m long road trains pulling 3 trailers.


title: Road train

text: An A-double consists of a prime mover towing a normal lead trailer with a ball hitch (or some other type of coupling) affixed to it at the rear. A fifth wheel dolly is then affixed to the hitch allowing another standard trailer to be attached. Eleven-axle coal tipping sets carrying to Port Kembla, Australia are described as A-doubles. The set depicted has a tare weight of 35.5 tonne and is capable of carrying 50 tonne of coal. Note the shield at the front of the second trailer to direct tipped coal from the first trailer downwards.


title: Road train

text: Pros include the ability to use standard semi-trailers and the potential for very large loads. Cons mainly include very tricky reversing due to the multiple articulation points across two different types of coupling.


title: Road train

text: A B-double consists of a prime mover towing a specialised lead trailer that has a fifth-wheel mounted on the rear towing another semi-trailer, resulting in two articulation points. It may also be known as a B-train, interlink in South Africa, B-double in Australia, tandem tractor-trailer, tandem rig or double in North America. They may typically be up to long. The fifth wheel coupling is located at the rear of the lead (first) trailer and is mounted on a "tail" section commonly located immediately above the lead trailer axles. In North America this area of the lead trailer is often referred to as the "bridge". The twin-trailer assembly is hooked up to a tractor unit via the tractor unit's fifth wheel in the customary manner.


title: Road train

text: An advantage of the B-train configuration is its inherent stability when compared to most other twin trailer combinations, the turntable mounted on the forward trailer results in the B-train not requiring a converter dolly as with all other road train configurations. It is this feature above all else that has ensured its continued development and global acceptance. Reversing is simpler as all articulation points are on fifth wheel couplings.


title: Road train

text: B-train trailers are used to transport many types of load and examples include tanks for liquid and dry-bulk, flat-beds and curtain-siders for deck-loads, bulkers for aggregates and wood residuals, refrigerated trailers for chilled and frozen goods, vans for dry goods, logging trailers for forestry work and cattle liners for livestock.


title: Road train

text: In Australia, standard semi-trailers are permitted on almost any road. B-doubles are more heavily regulated, but routes are made available by state governments for almost anywhere that significant road freight movement is required.


title: Road train

text: Around container ports in Australia exists what is known as a super B-double; a B-double with an extra axle (total of 4) on the lead trailer and either three or four axle set on the rear trailer. This allows the super B-Double to carry combinations of two 40 foot containers, four 20 foot containers, or a combination of one 40 foot container and two twenty foot containers. However, because of their length and low accessibility into narrow streets, these vehicles are restricted in where they can go and are generally used for terminal-to-terminal work, i.e. wharf to container holding park or wharf-to-wharf. The rear axle on each trailer can also pivot slightly while turning to prevent scrubbing out the edges of the tyres due to the heavy loads placed on them.


title: Road train

text: Same as B-double, but with an additional lead trailer behind the prime mover. The B-train principle has been exploited in Australia, where configurations such as B triples, double-B doubles and 2AB quads are permitted on some routes. These are run in most states of Australia where double road trains are allowed. Australia's National Transport Commission proposed a national framework for B-triple operations that includes basic vehicle specifications and operating conditions that the commission anticipates will replace the current state-by-state approach, which largely discourages the use of B-triples for interstate operation. In South Australia, B-triples up to and two-trailer road trains to are generally only permitted on specified routes, including access to industrial and export areas near Port Adelaide from the north.


title: Road train

text: An AB triple consists of a standard trailer with a B-Double behind it using a converter dolly, with a trailer order of Standard, Dolly, B-Train, Standard. The final trailer may be either a B-Train with no trailer attached to it or a standard trailer. Alternatively, a BA triple sees this configuration reversed, consisting of a B-double with a converter dolly and standard trailer behind it.


title: Road train

text: In South Australia, larger road trains up to (three full trailers) are only permitted on certain routes in the Far North.


title: Road train

text: A BAB quad consists of two B-double units linked with a converter dolly, with trailer order of Prime Mover, B-Train, Dolly, B-Train.


title: Road train

text: A C-train is a semi-trailer attached to a fifth-wheel on a C-dolly. Unlike in an A-Train, the C-dolly is connected to the tractor or another trailer in front of it with two drawbars, thus eliminating the drawbar connection as an articulation point. One of the axles on a C-dolly is self-steerable to prevent tire scrubbing. C-dollies are not permitted in Australia, due to the lack of articulation.


title: Road train

text: A dog-trailer (also called a pup) is any trailer that is hooked to a converter dolly, with a single A-frame drawbar that fits into the Ringfeder or pintle hook on the rear of the trailer in front, giving the whole unit three to five articulation points and very little roll stiffness.


title: Road train

text: In 1991, at a special Premiers' Conference, Australian heads of government signed an inter-governmental agreement to establish a national heavy vehicle registration, regulation and charging scheme, otherwise known as FIRS.


title: Road train

text: This registration scheme is known as the Federal Interstate Registration Scheme. The requirements of the scheme were as follows:


title: Road train

text: If the vehicle was purchased to be used for interstate trade, no stamp duty was payable on the purchase price of the vehicle.


title: Road train

text: The vehicle had to be subjected to an annual inspection for roadworthy standards, which had to be passed before registration could be renewed.


title: Road train

text: With the registration identification; the first letter of the 6 digit identified the home state: W, Western Australia; S, South Australia; V, Victoria; N, New South Wales; Q, Queensland; T, Tasmania; A, Australian Capital Territory and C, Northern Territory.


title: Road train

text: Due to the 'eastern' and 'western' mass limits in Australia, two different categories of registration were enacted. The second digit of the registration plate showed what mass limit was allowed for that vehicle. If a vehicle had a 'V' as the second letter, its mass limits were in line with the eastern states mass limits, which were:


title: Road train

text: If a vehicle had an "X" as the second letter, its mass limits were in line with the western states mass limits, which were:


title: Road train

text: One of the main criteria of the registration was that intrastate operation was not permitted. The load had to come from one state and be delivered to another state or territory. Many grain carriers were reported and prosecuted for cartage from the paddock to the silos. If, though, they went to a port silo, they were given the benefit of the doubt, as that grain was more than likely going overseas.


title: Road train

text: Australian road trains have horizontal signs front and back with high black uppercase letters on a reflective yellow background reading "ROAD TRAIN". The sign(s) must have a black border and be at least long and high and be placed between and above the ground on the fore or rearmost surface of the unit.


title: Road train

text: In the case of B-triples in Western Australia, they are signed front and rear with "ROAD TRAIN" until they cross the WA/SA border where they are then signed with "LONG VEHICLE" in the front and rear.


title: Road train

text: Converter dollies must have a sign affixed horizontally to the rearmost point, complying to the same conditions, reading "LONG VEHICLE". This is required for when a dolly is towed behind a trailer.


title: Road train

text: In western Canada, LCVs are restricted to , or the posted speed limit. Trucks of legal length () may travel at , or the posted speed limit.


title: Road train

text: Below is a list of longest road trains driven in the world. Most of these had no practical use, as they were put together and driven across relatively short distances for the express purpose of record-breaking.


title: Active protection system

text: An active protection system is a system designed to actively prevent certain anti-tank weapons from destroying a vehicle.


title: Active protection system

text: Countermeasures that either conceal the vehicle from, or disrupt the guidance of an incoming guided missile threat are designated soft-kill active protection measures.


title: Active protection system

text: Countermeasures that physically strike an incoming threat to damage or destroy it and thereby limit its ability to penetrate armor are designated hard-kill active protection measures.


title: Active protection system

text: Soft-kill measures are designed to defeat guided weapons either by concealing the protected vehicle from them (for example, with a smoke screen) or by disrupting their guidance with radiation (for example, with a dazzler). Some systems use laser dazzlers to blind the operator or sensors of semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), such as the JD-3 of the Type 99 tank. Others use powerful infrared emitters to mask the IR tracking flare present on many SACLOS ATGMs, such as the Shtora-1.


title: Active protection system

text: Soft-kill measures can be divided into on-board countermeasures, such as dazzlers, which are fixed to the platform and expendable countermeasures, such as smoke grenades, which are ejected upon use.


title: Active protection system

text: Soft-kill measures may be used preemptively, but are more commonly employed in reaction to detected threats.


title: Active protection system

text: Hard-kill measures kinetically attack threatening missiles or other munitions, usually at very close range to the protected vehicle.


title: Active protection system

text: Explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) or high explosive fragmentation countermeasures are typically used. The exact mechanism of many APSs has not been published.


title: Active protection system

text: There are many examples of hard kill countermeasures. The Russian Arena system utilizes a Doppler radar to detect incoming threats and fires munition to eliminate the threat. The Israeli Trophy system fires a multiple explosively formed penetrator (MEFP) to destroy the threat. An American system known as Quick Kill detects incoming threats using an Active Electronically Scanned Array, which assesses the threat, and deploys a smaller rocket countermeasure. Another American system, known as Iron Curtain, utilizes two sensors to reduce false alarms and defeat threats inches from their target by firing a kinetic countermeasure designed to minimize collateral damage. The Russian Afganit active protection system of the Armata AFVs features a millimeter-wavelength radar to detect and track incoming anti-tank munitions. It can reportedly intercept armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot kinetic energy penetrators in addition to high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) munitions.


title: Active protection system

text: Mountains and neighboring vehicles reflect radio waves, thus creating radar clutter, which adversely affects radar-detection and radar-lock performance.


title: Active protection system

text: The trajectories of top attack ATGMs like the FGM-148 Javelin (US) and Trigat (Germany) plunge down onto their targets. Not all active protection systems are designed to fire at the extreme elevations necessary to protect against such munitions. RPGs fired at a steep downward angle from elevated positions can pose a similar threat.


title: The Boxer

text: "The Boxer" is a song written by Paul Simon and recorded by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fifth studio album, "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970). Produced by the duo and Roy Halee, it was released as a standalone single on March 21, 1969, but included on the album nine months later (at the time, songs that had been released this far ahead were rarely included on the next studio album). The song is a folk rock ballad that variously takes the form of a first-person lament as well as a third-person sketch of a boxer. The lyrics are largely autobiographical and partially inspired by the Bible, and were written during a time when Simon felt he was being unfairly criticized. The song's lyrics discuss poverty and loneliness. It is particularly known for its plaintive refrain, in which they sing 'lie-la-lie', accompanied by a heavily reverbed snare drum.


title: The Boxer

text: "The Boxer" was the follow-up to one of the duo's most successful singles, "Mrs. Robinson". It peaked at No. 7 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It performed well internationally, charting within the Top 10 in nine countries, peaking highest in the Netherlands, Austria, South Africa, and Canada. "Rolling Stone" ranked the song No. 106 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


title: The Boxer

text: The original recording of the song is one of the duo's most highly produced, and took over 100 hours to record. The recording was performed at multiple locations, including St. Paul's Chapel (Columbia University) in New York City and Columbia studios in Nashville on a 16 track recorder.


title: The Boxer

text: The version originally released by the duo features an instrumental melody played in unison on pedal steel guitar played by Curly Chalker and piccolo trumpet. The song also features a bass harmonica, played by Charlie McCoy, heard during the second and final verses.


title: The Boxer

text: In a 2008 edition of "Fretboard Journal" magazine Fred Carter Jr. recounts to interviewer Rich Kienzle:


title: The Boxer

text: I had a baby Martin, which is a 000-18, and when we started the record in New York with Roy Halee, the engineer, and Paul [Simon] was playin' his Martin—I think it's a D-18 and he was tuned regular—he didn't have the song totally written lyrically, but he had most of the melody. And so all I was hearin' was bits and pieces while he was doin' his fingerpicking… I think he was fingerpicking in an open C. I tried two or three things and then picked up the baby Martin, which was about a third above his guitar, soundwise.


title: The Boxer

text: And I turned down the first string to a D, and tuned up the bass string to a G, which made it an open-G tuning, except for the fifth string, which was standard. Did some counter fingerpicking with him, just did a little backward roll, and lucked into a lick. And that turned into that little roll, and we cut it, just Paul and I, two guitars. Then we started to experiment with some other ideas and so forth. At the end of the day, we were still on the song. Garfunkel was amblin' around the studio, hummin’, and havin’ input at various times. They were real scientists. They’d get on a part, and it might be there [unfinished] six weeks later.


title: The Boxer

text: On my guitar, they had me miked with about seven mics. They had a near mic, a distant mic, a neck mic, a mic on the hole. They even miked my breathing. They miked the guitar in back. So Roy Halee was a genius at getting around. The first time we were listenin', they killed the breathing mic. And they had an ambient mic overhead, which picked up the two guitars together, I suppose. And so, I was breathin', I guess, pretty heavy in rhythm. And they wanted to take out that noise, and they took it out and said, 'Naw, we gotta leave that in.' That sounds almost like a rhythm on the record. So they left the breathin' mic on for the mix. I played Tele on it and a Twelve-string, three or four guitars on it. I was doing different guitar parts. One was a chord pattern and rhythm pattern. Did the Dobro lick on the regular six-string finger Dobro—not a slide Dobro.


title: The Boxer

text: I never heard the total record until I heard it on the air… I thought: That’s the greatest record I heard in my life, especially after the scrutiny and after all the time they spent on it and breakin’ it apart musically and soundwise and all of it. There was some magic in the studio that day, and Roy Halee captured it. Paul and I had a really nice groove.


title: The Boxer

text: The song has only one drumbeat, and played during the 'lie-la-lie' refrain. The session drummer Hal Blaine created the heavily reverberated drum sound with the help of producer Roy Halee, who found a spot for the drums in front of an elevator in the Columbia offices. The recording of the drum was recorded as the song was being played live by the musicians. Blaine would pound the drums at the end of the "Lie la lie" vocals that were playing in his headphones, and at one point, an elderly security guard got a big surprise when he came out of the elevator and was startled by Blaine's thunderous drums.


title: The Boxer

text: Hal Blaine recounted the recording process, "There we were with all these mic cables, my drums, and a set of headphones," says Blaine. "When the chorus came around — the 'lie-la-lie' bit — Roy had me come down on my snare drum as hard as I could. In that hallway, by the elevator shaft, it sounded like a cannon shot! Which was just the kind of sound we were after."


title: The Boxer

text: The song's lyrics take the form of a first-person lament, as the singer describes his struggles to overcome loneliness and poverty in New York City. The final verse switches to a third-person sketch of a boxer:


title: The Boxer

text: "In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame, 'I am leaving, I am leaving,' but the fighter still remains."


title: The Boxer

text: The chorus consists of repetitions of the non-lexical vocable "lie-la-lie". Simon stated that this was originally intended only as a placeholder, but became part of the finished song.


title: The Boxer

text: I didn't have any words! Then people said it was 'lie' but I didn't really mean that. That it was a lie. But, it's not a failure of songwriting, because people like that and they put enough meaning into it, and the rest of the song has enough power and emotion, I guess, to make it go, so it's all right. But for me, every time I sing that part... [softly], I'm a little embarrassed.


title: The Boxer

text: It has sometimes been suggested that the words represent a "sustained attack on Bob Dylan". Under this interpretation, Dylan is identified by his experience as an amateur boxer, and the "lie-la-lie" chorus represents allegations of Dylan lying about his musical intentions. Biographer Marc Eliot wrote in "Paul Simon: A Life", "In hindsight, this seems utterly nonsensical."


title: The Boxer

text: Bob Dylan in turn covered the song on his "Self Portrait" album, replacing the word "glove" with "blow." Paul Simon himself has suggested that the lyrics are largely autobiographical, written during a time when he felt he was being unfairly criticized:


title: The Boxer

text: I think I was reading the Bible around that time. That's where I think phrases such as "workman's wages" came from, and "seeking out the poorer quarters". That was biblical. I think the song was about me: everybody's beating me up, and I'm telling you now I'm going to go away if you don't stop.


title: The Boxer

text: It was during the recording of "The Boxer" that Art Garfunkel met his future first wife, Linda Grossman. As he recalled:


title: The Boxer

text: During a New York City concert in October 2010, Paul Simon stopped singing midway through "The Boxer" to tell the story of a woman who stopped him on the street to tell him that she edits the song when singing it to her young child. Simon told the audience that she removed the words "the whores" and altered the song to say, "I get no offers, just a come-on from "toy stores" on Seventh Avenue." Simon laughingly commented that he felt that it was "a better line."


title: The Boxer

text: On 3 June 2016 at his concert in Berkeley, California, Paul Simon again stopped singing partway through "The Boxer", this time to announce in one sentence breaking news: "I’m sorry to tell you this in this way, but Muhammad Ali passed away." He then finished the song with the last verse: "In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade…"


title: The Boxer

text: "The Boxer" was originally written with a verse that is not present in the "Bridge over Troubled Water" version:


title: The Boxer

text: This verse was performed by Simon & Garfunkel on tour in November 1969 (this version of the song is included on the "Live 1969" album), and sometimes by Simon in solo after the duo's breakup (on his "" album and on "Late Night with David Letterman" in 1987). The duo also added the verse on "Saturday Night Live" in 1975 and when they reunited for "The Concert in Central Park" in 1981. On March 30, 2020, Simon released a YouTube version dedicated to fellow New Yorkers during the coronavirus pandemic including this verse.


title: The Boxer

text: Cover versions of the song have been recorded by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, The Samples, Leandro e Leonardo, Paula Fernandes, Tommy Fleming, Hell Or Highwater, The Celtic Tenors, Bruce Hornsby, Cake, Jonne Järvelä and Mumford & Sons; Laredo; Harris' version reached the top fifteen on the US country charts in June 1980. Joan Baez has also made the song a staple of her live concert performances, from the late 1970s to the present, including once in Italy with the Italian songwriter Francesco De Gregori, who was also singing this song during his concerts; Baez performed the song with Paul Simon and Richard Thompson at her 75th Birthday Concert at New York's Beacon Theater in January 2016. Mumford and Sons' 2012 album "Babel" includes a cover of the song, which features Jerry Douglas and Simon himself. Waylon Jennings also recorded a version of this song on his 1996 album "Right for the Time".


title: The Boxer

text: Simon sang the song to open "Saturday Night Live" on September 29, 2001, the first live show following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.


title: The Boxer

text: In 2007, Simon was awarded the inaugural Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress; Jerry Douglas, Shawn Colvin and Alison Krauss performed "The Boxer" live. Also in 2007, country music artist Deana Carter released a cover of the song on her sixth studio album, "The Chain", which was recorded as a duet with Harper Simon.


title: The Boxer

text: The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps performed "The Boxer" as the ballad for their 2008 show, "The Knockout", and has been a recurring encore tune for the corps ever since.


title: The Boxer

text: The Irish rock band, The O'Reillys and the Paddyhats, recorded a version on their 2017 album "Sign of the Fighter".


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Symmetric-key algorithms are algorithms for cryptography that use the same cryptographic keys for both the encryption of plaintext and the decryption of ciphertext. The keys may be identical, or there may be a simple transformation to go between the two keys. The keys, in practice, represent a shared secret between two or more parties that can be used to maintain a private information link. The requirement that both parties have access to the secret key is one of the main drawbacks of symmetric-key encryption, in comparison to public-key encryption (also known as asymmetric-key encryption). However, symmetric-key encryption algorithms are usually better for bulk encryption. They have a smaller key size, which means less storage space and faster transmission. Due to this, asymmetric-key encryption is often used to exchange the secret key for symmetric-key encryption.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Examples of popular symmetric-key algorithms include Twofish, Serpent, AES (Rijndael), Camellia, Salsa20, ChaCha20, Blowfish, CAST5, Kuznyechik, RC4, DES, 3DES, Skipjack, Safer, and IDEA.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Encrypting a message does not guarantee that it will remain unchanged while encrypted. Hence, often a message authentication code is added to a ciphertext to ensure that changes to the ciphertext will be noted by the receiver. Message authentication codes can be constructed from an AEAD cipher (e.g. AES-GCM).


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: However, symmetric ciphers cannot be used for non-repudiation purposes except by involving additional parties. See the ISO/IEC 13888-2 standard.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Another application is to build hash functions from block ciphers. See one-way compression function for descriptions of several such methods.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Many modern block ciphers are based on a construction proposed by Horst Feistel. Feistel's construction makes it possible to build invertible functions from other functions that are themselves not invertible.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Symmetric ciphers have historically been susceptible to known-plaintext attacks, chosen-plaintext attacks, differential cryptanalysis and linear cryptanalysis. Careful construction of the functions for each round can greatly reduce the chances of a successful attack. It is also possible to increase the key length or the rounds in the encryption process to better protect against attack. This, however, tends to increase the processing power and decrease the speed at which the process runs due to the amount of operations the system needs to do.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Most modern symmetric-key algorithms appear to be resistant to the threat of post-quantum cryptography. Quantum computers would exponentially increase the speed at which these ciphers can be decoded; notably, Grover's algorithm would take the square-root of the time traditionally required for a brute-force attack, although these vulnerabilities can be compensated for by doubling key length. For example, a 128 bit AES cipher would not be secure against such an attack as it would reduce the time required to test all possible iterations from over 10 quintillion years to about six months. By contrast, it would still take a quantum computer the same amount of time to decode a 256 bit AES cipher as it would a conventional computer to decode a 128 bit AES cipher. For this reason, AES-256 is believed to be "quantum resistant".


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Symmetric-key algorithms require both the sender and the recipient of a message to have the same secret key.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: All early cryptographic systems required either the sender or the recipient to somehow receive a copy of that secret key over a physically secure channel.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Nearly all modern cryptographic systems still use symmetric-key algorithms internally to encrypt the bulk of the messages, but they eliminate the need for a physically secure channel by using Diffie–Hellman key exchange or some other public-key protocol to securely come to agreement on a fresh new secret key for each session/conversation (forward secrecy).


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: When used with asymmetric ciphers for key transfer, pseudorandom key generators are nearly always used to generate the symmetric cipher session keys. However, lack of randomness in those generators or in their initialization vectors is disastrous and has led to cryptanalytic breaks in the past. Therefore, it is essential that an implementation use a source of high entropy for its initialization.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: A reciprocal cipher is a cipher where, just as one enters the plaintext into the cryptography system to get the ciphertext, one could enter the ciphertext into the same place in the system to get the plaintext. A reciprocal cipher is also sometimes referred as self-reciprocal cipher.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Practically all mechanical cipher machines implement a reciprocal cipher, a mathematical involution on each typed-in letter.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: Instead of designing two kinds of machines, one for encrypting and one for decrypting, all the machines can be identical and can be set up (keyed) the same way.


title: Symmetric-key algorithm

text: The majority of all modern ciphers can be classified as either a stream cipher, most of which use a reciprocal XOR cipher combiner, or a block cipher, most of which use a Feistel cipher or Lai–Massey scheme with a reciprocal transformation in each round.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The Malacca Sultanate (; Jawi script: ) was a Malay sultanate based in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks as the founding year of the sultanate by King of Singapura, Parameswara, also known as Iskandar Shah, although earlier dates for its founding have been proposed. At the height of the sultanate's power in the 15th century, its capital grew into one of the most important transshipment ports of its time, with territory covering much of the Malay Peninsula, the Riau Islands and a significant portion of the northern coast of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: As a bustling international trading port, Malacca emerged as a centre for Islamic learning and dissemination, and encouraged the development of the Malay language, literature and arts. It heralded the golden age of Malay sultanates in the archipelago, in which Classical Malay became the "lingua franca" of Maritime Southeast Asia and Jawi script became the primary medium for cultural, religious and intellectual exchange. It is through these intellectual, spiritual and cultural developments, the Malaccan era witnessed the establishment of a Malay identity, the Malayisation of the region and the subsequent formation of an "Alam Melayu".


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: In the year of 1511, the capital of Malacca fell to the Portuguese Empire, forcing the last Sultan, Mahmud Shah (r. 1488–1511), to retreat to the further reaches of his empire, where his progeny established new ruling dynasties, Johor and Perak. The political and cultural legacy of the sultanate remains to this day. For centuries, Malacca has been held up as an exemplar of Malay-Muslim civilisation. It established systems of trade, diplomacy, and governance that persisted well into the 19th century, and introduced concepts such as – a distinctly Malay notion of sovereignty – that continues to shape contemporary understanding of Malay kingship.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The founding of Malacca is generally taken to be c. 1400. The region was dominated by the Srivijaya empire centered on Palembang in Sumatra until it was weakened by the Chola Empire in the 11th century. By the end of the 13th century, the Javanese Singhasari followed by the Majapahit had become dominant.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: According to the Malay Annals, a prince from Palembang named Seri Teri Buana who claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great and Rajendra Chola I, stayed in the island of Bintan for several years before he set sail and landed on Temasek in 1299. The Orang Laut (Sea People), famous for their loyal services to Srivijaya, eventually made him king of a new kingdom called Singapura. In the 14th century, Singapura developed concurrently with the Pax Mongolica era and rose from a small trading outpost into a centre of international trade with strong ties with the Yuan Dynasty.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: In an effort to revive the fortune of Malayu in Sumatra, in the 1370s, a Malay ruler of Palembang sent an envoy to the court of the first emperor of the newly established Ming dynasty. He invited China to resume the tributary system, just like Srivijaya did centuries earlier. Learning this diplomatic maneuver, immediately King Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit sent an envoy to Nanking, convinced the emperor that Malayu was their vassal, and was not an independent country. Subsequently, in 1377—a few years after the death of Gajah Mada, Majapahit sent a punitive naval attack against a rebellion in Palembang, which caused the complete destruction of Srivijaya and caused the diaspora of the Srivijayan princes and nobles. Rebellions against the Javanese rule ensued and attempts were made by the fleeing Malay princes to revive the empire.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: By the second half of 14th century, Kingdom of Singapura grew wealthy. However, its success alarmed two regional powers at that time, Ayuthaya from the north and Majapahit from the south. As a result, the kingdom's fortified capital was attacked by at least two major foreign invasions before it was finally sacked by either the Siamese or the Majapahit in 1398. The last king of Singapura then fled to the west coast of the Malay Peninsula.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Malay and Portuguese sources give different account of the fall of Singapura and its last king. In Portuguese sources, he is referred to as Parameswara who originated in Palembang but usurped the throne in Singapura, but in Malay sources he is Iskandar Shah, a descendent Seri Teri Buana who became the fifth king of Singapura. Parameswara fled north to Muar, Ujong Tanah and Biawak Busuk before reaching a fishing village at the mouth of Bertam river (modern-day Malacca River). The village belonged to the "sea-sakai" or "orang laut" which were left alone by Majapahit forces that not only sacked Singapura but also Langkasuka and Pasai. As a result, the village became a safe haven and in the 1370s it began to receive a growing number of refugees running away from Mahapahit's attacks. By the time Parameswara reached Malacca in the early 1400s, the place already had a cosmopolitan feel with Buddhists from the north, Hindus from Palembang and Muslims from Pasai.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Legend has it that Parameswara saw a mouse deer outwit his hunting dog into the water when he was resting under the Malacca tree. He thought this bode well, remarking, 'this place is excellent, even the mouse deer is formidable; it is best that we establish a kingdom here'. Tradition holds that he named the settlement after the tree he was leaning against while witnessing the portentous event. Today, the mouse deer is part of modern Malacca's coat of arms. The name "Malacca" itself was derived from the fruit-bearing Melaka tree () scientifically termed as "Phyllanthus emblica". Another account of the naming origin of Malacca elaborates that during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah (r. 1424–1444), the Arab merchants called the kingdom 'Malakat' (Arabic for 'congregation of merchants') because it was home to many trading communities.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Following establishment of his new city in Malacca, Parameswara initiated the development of the place and laid the foundation of a trade port. The indigenous inhabitants of the straits, the Orang Laut, were employed to patrol the adjacent sea areas, to repel other petty pirates, and to direct traders to Malacca. Within years, news about Malacca becoming a centre of trade and commerce began to spread all over the eastern part of the world. In 1405, Yongle Emperor of Ming Dynasty (r. 1402–1424) sent his envoy headed by Yin Qing to Malacca. Yin Qing's visit opened the way for the establishment of friendly relations between Malacca and China. Two years later, the legendary Admiral Zheng He made his first of six visits to Malacca. Chinese merchants began calling at the port and pioneering foreign trading bases in Malacca. Other foreign traders notably the Arabs, Indians, and Persians came to establish their trading bases and settle in Malacca, soaring its population to 2000. In 1411, Parameswara headed a royal party of 540 people and left for China with Admiral Zheng He to visit the Ming court. In 1414, the "Ming Shilu" mentions that the son of the first ruler of Malacca visited Ming court to inform Yongle that his father had died.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: There is uncertainty in the chronology of the early rulers of Malacca due to discrepancies contained in Malay, Chinese and Portuguese sources, such as the names, number of rulers and reign details:


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Due to the differences, there are disagreements about the early rulers of Malacca. It is, however, generally accepted that the Parameswara of Portuguese and Chinese sources and Iskandar Shah of Malay Annals are one and the same person, but a number of authors also accept the similarly-named Megat Iskandar Shah as Parameswara's son. During the reign of Megat Iskandar Shah (r. 1414–1424), the kingdom continued to prosper. The period saw the diversification of economic sources of the kingdom with the discovery of two tin mining areas in the northern part of the city, sago palms in the orchards and nipah palms lining in the estuaries and beaches. To improve the defence mechanism of the city from potential aggressors, Megat Iskandar Shah ordered the construction of a wall surrounding the city with four guarded entrances. A fenced fortress was also built in the town centre where the state's treasury and supply were stored. The growth of Malacca coincided with the rising power of Ayuthaya in the north. The growing ambitions of the kingdom against its neighbours and Malay Peninsula had alarmed the ruler of Malacca. In a preemptive measure, the king headed a royal visit to China in 1418 to raise his concerns about the threat. Yongle responded in October 1419 by sending his envoy to warn the Siamese ruler. Relationship between China and Malacca were further strengthened by several envoys to China, led by the Malaccan princes in the years 1420, 1421 and 1423. Due to this, it can be said that Malacca was economically and diplomatically fortified.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Between 1424 and 1433, two more royal visits to China were made during the reign of the third ruler, Raja Tengah (r. 1424–1444), named Sri Maharaja in some sources. During Raja Tengah's rule, it was said that an ulama called Saiyid Abdul Aziz came to Malacca to spread the teaching of Islam. The king together with his royal family, senior officials and the subjects of Malacca listened to his teachings. Shortly after, Raja Tengah adopted the Muslim name, Muhammad Shah and the title "Sultan" on the advice of the ulama. He introduced the Islamisation in his administration – customs, royal protocols, bureaucracy and commerce were made to conform to the principles of Islam. As Malacca became increasingly important as an international trading centre, the equitable regulation of trade was the key to continued prosperity – and the "Undang-Undang Laut Melaka" ('Maritime Laws of Malacca'), promulgated during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah, was an important facet of this. So too was the appointment of four "Shahbandars" for the different communities of the port. This accommodated foreign traders, who were also assigned their own enclaves in the city. In 1430s, China had reversed its policy of maritime expansion. However, by then Malacca was strong enough militarily to defend itself. In spite of these developments, China maintained a continuous show of friendship, suggesting that it placed Malacca in high regard. In fact, although it was China's practice to consider most foreign countries as vassal states, including Italy and Portugal, its relations with Malacca were characterised by mutual respect and friendship, such as that between two sovereign countries.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: In 1444, Muhammad Shah died after reigning for twenty years and left behind two sons; Raja Kasim, the son of Tun Wati who in turn a daughter of a wealthy Indian merchant, and Raja Ibrahim, the son of the Princess of Rokan. He was succeeded by his younger son, Raja Ibrahim, who reigned as Sultan Abu Syahid Shah (r. 1444–1446). Abu Syahid was a weak ruler and his administration was largely controlled by Raja Rokan, a cousin of his mother who stayed in the court of Malacca during his reign. The situation prompted the court officials to plan the assassination of Raja Rokan and to install Abu Syahid's older brother Raja Kasim to the throne. Both the Sultan and Raja Rokan were eventually killed in the attack in 1446. Raja Kasim was then appointed as the fifth ruler of Malacca and reign as Sultan Muzaffar Shah (r. 1446–1459). A looming threat from the Siamese kingdom of Ayuthaya became a reality when it launched a land invasion of Malacca in 1446. Tun Perak, the chief of Klang brought his men to help Malacca in the battle against the Siamese of which Malacca emerged victorious. His strong leadership qualities gained the attention of the Sultan, whose desire to see Malacca prosper made him appointing Tun Perak as the "Bendahara". In 1456, during the reign of King Trailokanat, the Siamese launched another attack, this time by sea. When the news about the attack reached Malacca, naval forces were immediately rallied and a defensive line was made near Batu Pahat. The forces were commanded by Tun Perak and assisted by Tun Hamzah, a warrior by the nickname Datuk Bongkok. The two sides were ultimately clashed in a fierce naval battle. Nevertheless, the more superior Malaccan navy succeeded in driving off the Siamese, pursuing them to Singapura and forcing them to return home. Malacca's victory in this battle gave it new confidence to devise strategies to extend its influence throughout the region. The defeat of Siam brought political stability to Malacca and enhanced its reputation in South East Asia.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Malacca reached its height of glory at the beginning the middle of the 15th century. Its territory extended from modern-day Southern Thailand in the north to most of eastern coast of Sumatra in the south after wrestling it from Majapahit and Ayuthaya sphere of influence. The kingdom conveniently controls the global trade vital choke point; the narrow strait that today bears its name, Straits of Malacca. Its port city had become the centre of regional and international trade, attracting regional traders as well as traders from other Eastern civilisations such as the Chinese Empire and the Ryukyu and Western civilisations such as Persian, Gujarat and Arabs.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The reign of Muzaffar Shah's son, Sultan Mansur Shah (r.1459–1477) witnessed the major expansion of the sultanate to reach its greatest extent of influence. Among the earliest territory ceded to the sultanate was Pahang, with its capital, Inderapura – a massive unexplored land with a large river and abundant source of gold which was ruled by Maharaja Dewa Sura, a relative of the King of Ligor. The Sultan dispatched a fleet of two hundred ships, led by Tun Perak and 19 Malaccan hulubalangs' ('commanders'). On reaching Pahang, a battle broke out in which the Pahangites were decisively defeated and its entire royal court were captured. The Malaccan fleet returned home with Dewa Sura and his daughter, Wanang Seri who were handed over to Sultan Mansur Shah. The Sultan appointed Tun Hamzah to rule Pahang. A policy of rapprochement with Ligor was later initiated by Mansur Shah to ensure steady supplies of rice.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The military prowess of the sultanate was further strengthened by the nine elite knights of the kingdom. They were Hang Tuah, Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekir, Hang Lekiu, Hang Ali, Hang Iskandar, Hang Hasan and Hang Husain. Hang Tuah, the most intelligent among them is able to speak fluently 12 languages including Mandarin, Arabic, Javanese, Persian, and Japanese. He is skillful with weaponries such as the sword, keris, long keris, bow, cross bow and spear. He was the leader among them and was conferred the office of "laksamana" ('admiral') by the Sultan.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: On his royal visit to Majapahit, Mansur Shah was also accompanied by these warriors. At that time, Majapahit was already at a declining state and found itself unable to overcome on the rising power of the Malay sultanate. After a display of Malaccan military prowess in his court, the king of Majapahit, afraid of losing more territories, had agreed to marry off his daughter, Raden Galuh Cendera Kirana to Sultan Mansur Shah and relinquished control over Indragiri, Jambi, Tungkal and Siantan to Malacca.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The friendly relations between China and Malacca escalated during the reign of Sultan Mansur Shah. The Sultan sent an envoy headed by Tun Perpatih Putih to China, carrying a diplomatic letter from the Sultan to the Emperor. According to the "Malay Annals", Tun Perpatih succeeded in impressing the Emperor of China with the fame and grandeur of Sultan Mansur Shah that the Emperor decreed that his daughter, Hang Li Po, should marry the Sultan. The Malay Annals further asserts that a senior minister of state and five hundred ladies in waiting accompanied the "princess" to Malacca. The Sultan built a palace for his new consort on a hill known ever afterwards as Bukit Cina ("Chinese Hill"). As trade flourished and Malacca became more prosperous, Mansur Shah ordered the construction of a large and beautiful palace at the foot of Malacca Hill. The royal palace reflected the wealth, prosperity and power of Malacca and embodied the excellence and distinct characteristics of Malay architecture.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The brief conflict between Malacca and Đại Việt during the reign of Lê Thánh Tông (r. 1460 – 1497), began shortly after the 1471 Vietnamese invasion of Champa, then already a Muslim kingdom. The Chinese government, without knowing about the event, sent a censor Ch'en Chun to Champa in 1474 to install the Champa King, but he discovered Vietnamese soldiers had taken over Champa and were blocking his entry. He proceeded to Malacca instead and its ruler sent back tribute to China. In 1469, Malaccan envoys on their return from China was attacked by the Vietnamese who castrated the young and enslaved them. In view of Lê Dynasty's position as a protectorate to China, Malacca abstained from any act of retaliation. Instead, Malacca sent envoys to China in 1481 to report on the Vietnamese aggression and their invasion plan against Malacca, as well as to confront the Vietnamese envoys who happened to be present in the Ming court. However, the Chinese informed that since the incident was years old, they could do nothing about it, and the Emperor sent a letter to the Vietnamese ruler reproaching him for the incident. The Chinese Emperor also granted permission for Malacca to retaliate with violent force should the Vietnamese attack, an event that never happened again after that.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The Vietnamese with full force battalion were heavily defeated by outnumbered Malacca battalion during an invasion of Lan Sang as reported in a Chinese account.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The expansionist policy of Mansur Shah was maintained throughout his reign when he later added Kampar and Siak to his realm. He also turned a number of states in the archipelago into his imperial dependencies. The ruler of such states would come to Malacca after their coronation to obtain the blessing of the Sultan of Malacca. Rulers who have been overthrown also came to Malacca requesting the Sultan's aid in reclaiming their throne. One such examples was Sultan Zainal Abidin of Pasai who was toppled by his own relatives. He fled to Malacca and pleaded with Sultan Mansur Shah to reinstall him as a ruler. Malacca armed forces were immediately sent to Pasai and defeated the usurpers. Although Pasai never came under the control Malacca afterwards, the event greatly demonstrated the importance of Malacca and the mutual support it had established among leaders and states in the region. While Malacca was at the peak of its splendour, Sultan Mansur Shah died in 1477.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The prosperous era of Malacca continued under the rule of his son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah (r. 1477–1488) and more foreign rulers within the region began paying homage to the Sultan of Malacca. Among them were a ruler from the Moluccas Islands who were defeated by his enemies, a ruler of Rokan and a ruler named Tuan Telanai from Terengganu. Alauddin Riayat Shah was a ruler who placed a great importance in maintaining peace and order during his reign. He was succeeded by his son, Sultan Mahmud Shah (r. 1488–1511) who was a teenage boy upon his accession. Hence Malacca was administered by Bendahara Tun Perak with the help of other senior officials. The legendary Princess of Gunung Ledang was said to have lived during the reign of Mahmud Shah and once wooed by the sultan himself. The town of Malacca continues to flourish and prosper with an influx of foreign traders after the appointment of Tun Mutahir as Bendahara. This was due to his efficient and wise administration and his ability to attract more foreign traders to Malacca. By about 1500, Malacca was at the height of its power and glory. Its city of Malacca was the capital of a great Malay empire, the chief centre of trade in Indian cloth, Chinese porcelain and silk and Malay spices, and the headquarters of Muslim activity in the Malay Archipelago. Malacca was still looking to expand its territory as late as 1506, when it conquered Kelantan.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: By the 15th century, Europe had developed an insatiable appetite for spices. At that time, spice trade was virtually monopolised by the Venetian merchants via a convoluted trade route through Arabia and India, which in turn linked to its source in Spice Islands via Malacca. Upon becoming king in 1481, John II of Portugal determined to break this chain and control the lucrative spice trade directly from its source. This led to the expansion of Portuguese sea exploration, pioneered by Vasco da Gama, into the east coasts of India that had resulted in the establishment of Portuguese stronghold in Calicut.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Years later, during the reign of Manuel I, a fidalgo named Diogo Lopes de Sequeira was assigned to analyse the trade potentials in Madagascar and Malacca. He arrived in Malacca on 1 August 1509 carrying with him a letter from the King. His mission was to establish trade with Malacca. The Tamil Muslims who were now powerful in the Malaccan court and friendly with Tun Mutahir, the Bendahara, were hostile towards the Christian Portuguese. The Gujarati merchants who were also Muslims and had known the Portuguese in India, preached a holy war against "the infidels". Unfortunately, because of the dissension between Mahmud Shah and Tun Mutahir, a plot was hatched to kill de Sequeira, imprison his men and capture the Portuguese fleet anchored off the Malacca River. The plot leaked out and de Sequeira managed to escape from Malacca in his ship, leaving behind several of his men as captives.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: In April 1511 Afonso de Albuquerque, who was the Portuguese expedition leader together with his armada, arrived in Malacca to sever its Islamic and Venetian trade. His intention was described in his own words when he arrived to Malacca:


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The Portuguese launch their first attack on 25 July 1511, but this was met with failure. Albuquerque then launched another attack on 15 August 1511, which proved successful as Malacca was captured on that day. The Portuguese constructed a fortress called A Famosa using rocks and stones taken from Muslim graves, mosques, and other buildings. Several churches and convents, a bishop's palace, and administrative buildings such as the governor's palace were built. The Portuguese imposed higher taxes on Chinese traders and restricted their ownership of land. The news of the city's capture reached the Ming Dynasty of China; the Chinese were also displeased about the kidnapping of many Chinese children by the Portuguese in Tuen Mun. In retaliation for Portugal's activity in Malacca, several Portuguese were later killed by the Chinese in the battles of Tunmen and Xicaowan in China.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Following the 1511 conquest, the great Malay city port of Malacca passed into Portuguese hands and for the next 130 years remained under Portuguese governance despite incessant attempts by the former rulers of Malacca and other regional powers to dislodge the Europeans. Around the foot hill on which the Sultan's "Istana" once stood, the Portuguese built the stone fort known as A Famosa, completed in 1512. Malay graves, the mosque and other buildings were dismantled to obtain the stone from which, together with laterite and brick, the fort was built. Despite numerous attacks, the fort was only breached once, when the Dutch and Johor defeated the Portuguese in 1641.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: It soon became clear that Portuguese control of Malacca did not mean they now controlled Asian trade that centred on it. Their rule in Malacca was marred with difficulties. They could not become self-sufficient and remained highly dependent on Asian suppliers, as had their Malay predecessors. They were short of both funds and manpower and the administration was hampered by organizational confusion and command overlap, corruption and inefficiency. Competition from other regional ports such as Johor which was founded by the exiled Sultan of Malacca, saw Asian traders bypass Malacca and the city began to decline as a trading port. Rather than achieving their ambition of dominating it, the Portuguese had fundamentally disrupted the organisation of the Asian trade network. The previously centralised port of exchange that policed the Straits of Malacca to maintain its safety for commercial traffic, was replaced with scattered trading network over a number of ports rivalling each other in the Straits.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The efforts to propagate Christianity which was also one of the principal aims of Portuguese imperialism did not, however, meet with much success, primarily because Islam was already strongly entrenched among the local population.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: The Portuguese conquest of Malacca enraged the Zhengde Emperor of China when he received the envoys from the exiled Sultan Mahmud. The furious Chinese emperor responded with brutal force, culminating the period of three decades of prosecution of Portuguese in China.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: Among the earliest victims were the Portuguese envoys led by Tomé Pires in 1516 that were greeted with great hostility and suspicion. The Chinese confiscated all of the Portuguese property and goods in the Pires embassy's possession. Many of the envoys were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Pires himself was said among those who died in the Chinese dungeons. Two successive Portuguese fleets bound for China in 1521 and 1522 were attacked and defeated in the first and second Battle of Tamao.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: In response to Portuguese piracy and the illegal installation of bases in Fujian at Wuyu island and Yue harbour at Zhangzhou, Shuangyu island in Zhejiang, and Nan'ao island in Guangdong, the Imperial Chinese Right Deputy Commander Zhu Wan exterminated all the pirates and razed the Shuangyu Portuguese base, using force to prohibit trading with foreigners by sea. Moreover, Chinese traders boycotted Malacca after it fell under Portuguese control, with some Chinese in Java even assisting in Muslim attempts to invade the city.


title: Malacca Sultanate

text: However, with gradual improvement of relations and aid given against the Japanese Wokou pirates along China's shores, by 1557 Ming China finally agreed to allow the Portuguese to settle at Macau in a new Portuguese trade colony. The Malay Sultanate of Johor also improved relations with the Portuguese.