title: Passive income

text: According to the US tax code, it does not specifically define income, but lists the various income items. The basic concept of the US federal personal income tax is the gross income, which is defined by the IRS as all income from any source, except for those excluded by law. There are four types of income depending on the income source:


title: Passive income

text: The four categories of income are not designed to differentiate tax rate, but rather to introduce a credit for active work.


title: Passive income

text: In the US tax system, various types of income can be classified under the negative activity loss rules as follows:


title: Passive income

text: Investment portfolios and passive income are also covered by the personal income tax rules regarding the earned income tax credit.


title: Passive income

text: The United States Internal Revenue Service categorizes income as active income, passive income, or portfolio income. It defines passive income as only coming from two sources, or "passive activities": rental activity or "trade or business activities in which you do not materially participate." Other financial and government institutions also recognize it as an income obtained as a result of capital growth or in relation to negative gearing. Passive income is usually taxable.


title: Passive income

text: Portfolio income (interest, dividends, royalties, gains on stocks and bonds) is considered passive income by some analysts. However, the IRS does not generally consider portfolio income as passive. Thus it would be wise to turn to a tax professional on that subject.


title: Passive income

text: Also self-charged interest can be included in passive income "if the loan proceeds are used in a passive activity". Self-charged interest income usually refers to loans between you and a partnership or S corporation in which you had a direct or indirect ownership interest at any time during their tax year (this applies for both loans you made to the partnership or S corporation and loans that were made to you).


title: Passive income

text: In some cases, royalties could be put in the category of passive income. Royalties are payments made by one company (the licensee) to another company or person (the licensor) for the right to use the latter's intellectual property (book, music, video) or patent. However, the Internal Revenue Service only considers royalties passive income when they are "not derived in the ordinary course of a trade or business."


title: Passive income

text: Passive income also includes earnings from other business in which a person is not actively involved. An example could be silent partner. A silent partner is an individual who does not have any role in company and whose participation in a partnership is limited to providing capital to the business (that is why they are sometimes called limited partners). A silent partner earns a passive income since he gets an agreed percentage of the gross profits on a regular basis.


title: Passive income

text: In order to be considered a rental activity, tangible property is used by customers and the gross income from the activity represents amounts paid mainly for the use of the property. Activity isn’t a rental activity if any of the following apply:


title: Passive income

text: A trade or business activity is an activity that involves running a trade or business, is conducted in expectation of starting a trade or business or involves research or experimental expenditures.


title: Passive income

text: Winning a lottery can be viewed as a shock to household wealth or, equivalently, a permanent shock to unearned income. In the U.S., lottery winnings are considered ordinary taxable income in the year the payment is made. The vast majority of winnings are paid lump sum but there is a small fraction of winnings that are paid in installments over time. Currently, 45 U.S. states conduct some type of lottery tax rate from 10%~ 37% responsively. Any winning of at least $600 and at least 300 times the purchase price of a ticket triggers generation of Form W-2G. This form is provided to both the winner and to tax authorities, and is used for income tax filing.


title: Passive income

text: It would be complicated to state one conclusion about the passive income and the taxation of this type of income in Europe. In fact, there is no word defined as "passive income" by the European Commission. In addition, the European Union itself has no taxation powers. Every country levies different taxes on activities that are defined above as "passive".


title: Passive income

text: The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) does not define passive income as well. Each jurisdiction can define the items included in the list of passive income in its own way in accordance with domestic rules. However, the CRS provides a list of items that should generally be considered as passive income and should guide the countries.


title: Passive income

text: Income should be characterized as passive if it contains the portion of gross income that consists of:


title: Passive income

text: China currently adopts a proportional tax rate of 20% for passive income and unearned income, which does not play the role of regulating the income distribution gap between active income and passive income as some expects argued. Specifically, the relative tax rates on these two incomes, with the former one being subject to a progressive marginal tax rate of up to 45% on larger amounts of income, while the later income, particularly capital gains, is only subject to a proportional tax rate of 20%, which is unfair on a horizontal basis and does not have the effect of regulating excessive income.


title: Passive income

text: There are more types of passive income than is shown in this article. In any case, it is preferable to consult with financial advisor first.


title: Passive income

text: It is one of the most popular and simplest ways to gain passive income. A person gives a certain amount of money to a bank and takes interest every month.


title: Passive income

text: Bonds are debt securities issued by the state or company for gaining investments. By purchasing a bond, a person is lending savings to the issuer for a specified period. In return, he receives income at the very end of the bond validity period, or he can also earn so-called coupon income.


title: Passive income

text: It is a reliable way to generate income passively. However, it is important to mention the research to find stocks with desirable risk/income ratio.


title: IU filmography

text: Lee Ji-eun (born May 16, 1993), professionally known as IU, is a South Korean singer, songwriter and actress.


title: Brig

text: A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part of the 19th century. In commercial use, they were gradually replaced by fore-and-aft rigged vessels such as schooners, as owners sought to reduce crew costs by having rigs that could be handled by fewer men. In Royal Navy use, brigs were retained for training use when the battle fleets consisted almost entirely of iron-hulled steamships.


title: Brig

text: Brigs were prominent in the coasting coal trade of British waters. 4,395 voyages to London with coal were recorded in 1795. With an average of eight or nine trips per year for one vessel, that is a fleet of over 500 colliers trading to London alone. Other ports and coastal communities were also be served by colliers trading to Britain's coal ports. In the first half of the 19th century, the vast majority were rigged as brigs, and that rig was retained for longer in the northeast of England.


title: Brig

text: In sailing, a full-rigged brig is a vessel with two square rigged masts (fore and main). The main mast of a brig is the aft one. To improve maneuverability, the mainmast carries a small (gaff rigged) fore-and-aft sail.


title: Brig

text: Brig sails are named after the masts to which they are attached: the mainsail; above that the main topsail; above that the main topgallant sail; and occasionally a very small sail, called the royal, is above that. Behind the main sail there is a small fore-and-aft sail called the spanker or boom mainsail (it is somewhat similar to the main sail of a schooner). On the foremast is a similar sail, called the trysail. Attached to the respective yards of square-rigged ships are smaller spars, which can be extended, thus lengthening the yard, thus receiving an additional sailing wing on each side. These are called studding sails, and are used with fair and light wind only. The wings are named after the sails to which they are fastened, i.e. the main studding sails, main top studding sails, and the main top gallant studding sails, etc.


title: Brig

text: The brig's foremast is smaller than the main mast. The fore mast holds a fore sail, fore top sail, fore top gallant sail, and fore royal. Between the fore mast and the bowsprit are the fore staysail, jib, and flying jib. All the yards are manipulated by a complicated arrangement of cordage named the running rigging. This is opposed to the standing rigging which is fixed, and keeps mast and other objects rigid.


title: Brig

text: A brig is "generally built on a larger scale than a schooner, and may approach the magnitude of a full-sized, three-masted ship." Brigs vary in length between with tonnages up to 480. A notable exception being the famous designer Colin Mudie's 'Little Brigs' ("TS Bob Allen" and "TS Caroline Allen)", which are only 10m long and weigh only 8 tonnes. Historically, most brigs were made of wood, although some later brigs were built with hulls and masts of steel or iron. A brig made of pine in the 19th century was designed to last for about twenty years (many lasted longer).


title: Brig

text: The word "brig" has been used in the past as an abbreviation of brigantine (which is the name for a two-masted vessel with foremast fully square rigged and her mainmast rigged with both a fore-and-aft mainsail, square topsails and possibly topgallant sails). The brig actually developed as a variant of the brigantine. Re-rigging a brigantine with two square-rigged masts instead of one gave it greater sailing power. The square-rigged brig's advantage over the fore-and-aft rigged brigantine was "that the sails, being smaller and more numerous, are more easily managed, and require fewer men or 'hands' to work them." The variant was so popular that the term "brig" came to exclusively signify a ship with this type of rigging. By the 17th century the British Royal Navy defined "brig" as having two square rigged masts.


title: Brig

text: Brigs were used as small warships carrying about 10 to 18 guns. Due to their speed and maneuverability they were popular among pirates (though they were rare among American and Caribbean pirates). While their use stretches back before the 17th century, one of the most famous periods for the brig was during the 19th century when they were involved in famous naval battles such as the Battle of Lake Erie. In the early 19th century the brig was a standard cargo ship. It was seen as "fast and well sailing", but required a large crew to handle its rigging. While brigs could not sail into the wind as easily as fore-and-aft–rigged vessels such as schooners, a trait that is common to all square-rigged ships, a skilled brig captain could "manoeuvre it with ease and elegance; a brig could for instance turn around almost on the spot". A brig's square-rig also had the advantage over a fore-and-aft–rigged vessel when travelling offshore, in the trade winds, where vessels sailed down wind for extended distances and where "the danger of a sudden jibe was the large schooner-captain's nightmare". This trait later led to the evolution of the barquentine. The need for large crews in relation to their relatively small size led to the decline of the production of brigs. They were replaced in commercial traffic by gaffsail schooners (which needed fewer personnel) and steam boats.


title: Bird strike

text: A bird strike—sometimes called birdstrike, bird ingestion (for an engine), bird hit, or bird aircraft strike hazard (BASH)—is a collision between an airborne animal (usually a bird or bat) and a moving vehicle, usually an aircraft. The term is also used for bird deaths resulting from collisions with structures such as power lines, towers and wind turbines (see Bird–skyscraper collisions and Towerkill).


title: Bird strike

text: A significant threat to flight safety, bird strikes have caused a number of accidents with human casualties. There are over 13,000 bird strikes annually in the US alone. However, the number of major accidents involving civil aircraft is quite low and it has been estimated that there is only about 1 accident resulting in human death in one billion (10) flying hours. The majority of bird strikes (65%) cause little damage to the aircraft; however, the collision is usually fatal to the bird(s) involved.


title: Bird strike

text: The Canada goose has been ranked as the third most hazardous wildlife species to aircraft (behind deer and vultures), with approximately 240 goose-aircraft collisions in the United States each year. 80% of all bird strikes go unreported.


title: Bird strike

text: Most accidents occur when a bird (or birds) collides with the windscreen or is sucked into the engine of jet aircraft. These cause annual damages that have been estimated at $400 million within the United States alone and up to $1.2 billion to commercial aircraft worldwide. In addition to property damage, collisions between man-made structures and conveyances and birds is a contributing factor, among many others, to the worldwide decline of many avian species.


title: Bird strike

text: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) received 65,139 bird strike reports for 2011–14, and the Federal Aviation Administration counted 177,269 wildlife strike reports on civil aircraft between 1990 and 2015, growing 38% in seven years from 2009 to 2015. Birds accounted for 97%.


title: Bird strike

text: Bird strikes happen most often during takeoff or landing, or during low altitude flight. However, bird strikes have also been reported at high altitudes, some as high as above the ground. Bar-headed geese have been seen flying as high as above sea level. An aircraft over the Ivory Coast collided with a Rüppell's vulture at the altitude of , the current record avian height. The majority of bird collisions occur near or at airports (90%, according to the ICAO) during takeoff, landing and associated phases. According to the FAA wildlife hazard management manual for 2005, less than 8% of strikes occur above and 61% occur at less than .


title: Bird strike

text: The point of impact is usually any forward-facing edge of the vehicle such as a wing leading edge, nose cone, jet engine cowling or engine inlet.


title: Bird strike

text: Jet engine ingestion is extremely serious due to the rotation speed of the engine fan and engine design. As the bird strikes a fan blade, that blade can be displaced into another blade and so forth, causing a cascading failure. Jet engines are particularly vulnerable during the takeoff phase when the engine is turning at a very high speed and the plane is at a low altitude where birds are more commonly found.


title: Bird strike

text: The force of the impact on an aircraft depends on the weight of the animal and the speed difference and direction at the point of impact. The energy of the impact increases with the square of the speed difference. High-speed impacts, as with jet aircraft, can cause considerable damage and even catastrophic failure to the vehicle. The energy of a bird moving at a relative velocity of approximately equals the energy of a weight dropped from a height of . However, according to the FAA only 15% of strikes (ICAO 11%) actually result in damage to the aircraft.


title: Bird strike

text: Bird strikes can damage vehicle components, or injure passengers. Flocks of birds are especially dangerous and can lead to multiple strikes, with corresponding damage. Depending on the damage, aircraft at low altitudes or during take-off and landing often cannot recover in time. US Airways Flight 1549 is a classic example of this. The engines on the Airbus A320 used on that flight were torn apart by multiple bird strikes at low altitude. There was no time to make a safe landing at an airport, forcing a water landing in the Hudson River.


title: Bird strike

text: Remains of the bird, termed "snarge", are sent to identification centers where forensic techniques may be used to identify the species involved. These samples need to be taken carefully by trained personnel to ensure proper analysis and reduce the risks of infection (zoonoses).


title: Bird strike

text: Most bird strikes involve large birds with big populations, particularly geese and gulls in the United States. In parts of the US, Canada geese and migratory snow geese populations have risen significantly while feral Canada geese and greylag geese have increased in parts of Europe, increasing the risk of these large birds to aircraft. In other parts of the world, large birds of prey such as "Gyps" vultures and "Milvus" kites are often involved. In the US, reported strikes are mainly from waterfowl (30%), gulls (22%), raptors (20%), and pigeons and doves (7%). The Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Laboratory has identified turkey vultures as the most damaging birds, followed by Canada geese and white pelicans, all of which are very large birds. In terms of frequency, the laboratory most commonly finds mourning doves and horned larks involved in the strike.


title: Bird strike

text: The largest numbers of strikes happen during the spring and fall migrations. Bird strikes above altitude are about 7 times more common at night than during the day during the bird migration season.


title: Bird strike

text: Large land animals, such as deer, can also be a problem to aircraft during takeoff and landing. Between 1990 and 2013, civil aircraft experienced more than 1,000 collisions with deer and 440 with coyotes.


title: Bird strike

text: An animal hazard reported from London Stansted Airport in England is rabbits: they get run over by ground vehicles and planes, and they pass large amounts of droppings, which attract mice, which in turn attract owls, which then become another birdstrike hazard.


title: Bird strike

text: There are three approaches to reduce the effect of bird strikes. The vehicles can be designed to be more "bird resistant", the birds can be moved out of the way of the vehicle, or the vehicle can be moved out of the way of the birds.


title: Bird strike

text: Most large commercial jet engines include design features that ensure they can shut-down after "ingesting" a bird weighing up to . The engine does not have to survive the ingestion, just be safely shut down. This is a 'stand-alone' requirement, "i.e.", the engine, not the aircraft, must pass the test. Multiple strikes (from hitting a bird flock) on twin-engine jet aircraft are very serious events because they can disable multiple aircraft systems, requiring emergency action to land the aircraft, as in the January 15, 2009 forced ditching of US Airways Flight 1549.


title: Bird strike

text: As required by EASA's CS 25.631 or FAA's 14 CFR § 25.571(e)(1) post Amdt 25-96, modern jet aircraft structures are designed for continued safe flight and landing after withstanding one bird impact anywhere on the aircraft (including the flight deck windshields). Per FAA's 14 CFR § 25.631, they must also withstand one bird impact anywhere on the empennage (tail). Flight deck windows on jet aircraft must be able to withstand one bird collision without yielding or spalling. For the empennage (tail), this is usually accomplished by designing redundant structures and protected locations for control system elements or protective devices such as splitter plates or energy-absorbing material. Often, one aircraft manufacturer will use similar protective design features for all of its aircraft models, to minimize testing and certification costs. Transport Canada also pays particular attention to these requirements during aircraft certification, considering there are many documented cases in North America of bird strikes with large Canada geese which weigh approximately on average, and can sometimes weigh as much as .


title: Bird strike

text: At first, bird strike testing by manufacturers involved firing a bird carcass from a gas cannon and sabot system into the tested unit. The carcass was soon replaced with suitable density blocks, often gelatin, to ease testing. Current certification efforts are mainly conducted with limited testing, supported by more detailed analysis using computer simulation, although final testing usually involves some physical experiments (see birdstrike simulator).


title: Bird strike

text: Based on US NTSB recommendation following the 2009 US Airways Flight 1549, the EASA in 2017, followed a year after by the FAA, proposed that engines should sustain a bird strike not only on takeoff and climb where turbofans are turning at their fastest, but also in descent when they turn more slowly; new regulations could apply for the Boeing NMA engines.


title: Bird strike

text: Though there are many methods available to wildlife managers at airports, no single method will work in all instances and with all species. Wildlife management in the airport environment can be grouped into two broad categories: non-lethal and lethal. Integration of multiple non-lethal methods with lethal methods results in the most effective airfield wildlife management strategy.


title: Bird strike

text: Non-lethal management can be further broken down into habitat manipulation, exclusion, visual, auditory, tactile, or chemical repellents, and relocation.


title: Bird strike

text: One of the primary reasons that wildlife is seen in airports is an abundance of food. Food resources on airports can be either removed or made less desirable. One of the most abundant food resources found on airports is turfgrass. This grass is planted to reduce runoff, control erosion, absorb jet wash, allow passage of emergency vehicles, and to be aesthetically pleasing (DeVault et al. 2013) However, turfgrass is a preferred food source for species of birds that pose a serious risk to aircraft, chiefly the Canada goose ("Branta canadensis"). Turfgrass planted at airports should be a species that geese do not prefer (e.g. St. Augustine grass) and should be managed in such a way that reduces its attractiveness to other wildlife such as small rodents and raptors (Commander, Naval Installations Command 2010, DeVault et al. 2013). It has been recommended that turfgrass be maintained at a height of 7–14 inches through regular mowing and fertilization (U.S. Air Force 2004).


title: Bird strike

text: Wetlands are another major attractant of wildlife in the airport environment. They are of particular concern because they attract waterfowl which have a high potential to damage aircraft (Federal Aviation Administration 2013). With large areas of impervious surfaces, airports must employ methods to collect runoff and reduce its flow velocity. These best management practices often involve temporarily ponding runoff. Short of redesigning existing runoff control systems to include non-accessible water such as subsurface flow wetlands (DeVault et al. 2013), frequent drawdowns and covering of exposed water with floating covers and wire grids should be employed (International Civil Aviation Organization 1991). The implementation of covers and wire grids must not hinder emergency services.


title: Bird strike

text: Though excluding birds from the entire airport environment is virtually impossible, it is possible to exclude deer and other mammals that constitute a small percentage of wildlife strikes. Three-meter high fences made of chain link or woven wire, with barbed wire outriggers, are the most effective. When used as a perimeter fence, these fences also serve to keep unauthorized people off of the airport (Seamans 2001). Realistically every fence must have gates. Gates that are left open allow deer and other mammals onto the airport. 4.6 meter long cattle guards have been shown to be effective at deterring deer up to 98% of the time (Belant et al. 1998).


title: Bird strike

text: Hangars with open superstructures often attract birds to nest and roost in. Hangar doors are often left open to increase ventilation, especially in the evenings. Birds in hangars are in proximity to the airfield and their droppings are both a health and damage concern. Netting is often deployed across the superstructure of a hangar denying access to the rafters where the birds roost and nest while still allowing the hangar doors to remain open for ventilation and aircraft movements. Strip curtains and door netting may also be used but are subject to improper use (e.g. tying the strips to the side of the door) by those working in the hangar. (U.S. Air Force 2004, Commander, Naval Installations Command 2010).


title: Bird strike

text: There have been a variety of visual repellent and harassment techniques used in airport wildlife management. They include using birds of prey and dogs, effigies, landing lights, and lasers. Birds of prey have been used with great effectiveness at landfills where there were large populations of feeding gulls (Cook et al. 2008). Dogs have also been used with success as visual deterrents and means of harassment for birds at airfields (DeVault et al. 2013). However, airport wildlife managers must consider the risk of knowingly releasing animals in the airport environment. Both birds of prey and dogs must be monitored by a handler when deployed and must be cared for, when not deployed. Airport wildlife managers must consider the economics of these methods (Seamans 2001).


title: Bird strike

text: Effigies of both predators and conspecifics have been used with success to disperse gulls and vultures. The effigies of conspecifics are often placed in unnatural positions where they can freely move with the wind. Effigies have been found to be the most effective in situations where the nuisance birds have other options (e.g. other forage, loafing, and roosting areas) available. Time to habituation varies. (Seamans et al. 2007, DeVault et al. 2013).


title: Bird strike

text: Lasers have been used with success to disperse several species of birds. However, lasers are species-specific as certain species will only react to certain wavelengths. Lasers become more effective as ambient light levels decrease, thereby limiting effectiveness during daylight hours. Some species show a very short time to habituation (Airport Cooperative Research Program, 2011). The risks of lasers to aircrews must be evaluated when determining whether or not to deploy lasers on airfields. Southampton Airport utilizes a laser device which disables the laser past a certain elevation, eliminating the risk of the beam being shone directly at aircraft and air traffic control tower (Southampton Airport 2014).


title: Bird strike

text: Auditory repellents are commonly used in both agricultural and aviation contexts. Devices such as propane exploders (cannons), pyrotechnics, and bioacoustics are frequently deployed on airports. Propane exploders are capable of creating noises of approximately 130 decibels (Wildlife Control Supplies). They can be programmed to fire at designated intervals, can be remote controlled, or motion activated. Due to their stationary and often predictable nature, wildlife quickly becomes habituated to propane cannons. Lethal control may be used to extend the effectiveness of propane exploders (Washburn et al. 2006).


title: Bird strike

text: Pyrotechnics utilizing either an exploding shell or a screamer can effectively scare birds away from runways. They are commonly launched from a 12 gauge shotgun or a flare pistol, or from a wireless specialized launcher and as such, can be aimed to allow control personnel to "steer" the species that is being harassed. Birds show varying degrees of habituation to pyrotechnics. Studies have shown that lethal reinforcement of pyrotechnic harassment has extended its usefulness (Baxter and Allen 2008). Screamer type cartridges are still intact at the end of their flight (as opposed to exploding shells that destroy themselves) constituting a foreign object damage hazard and must be picked up. The use of pyrotechnics is considered "take" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and USFWS must be consulted if federally threatened or endangered species could be affected. Pyrotechnics are a potential fire hazard and must be deployed judiciously in dry conditions (Commander, Naval Installations Command, 2010, Airport Cooperative Research Program 2011).


title: Bird strike

text: Bioacoustics, or the playing of conspecific distress or predator calls to frighten animals, is widely used. This method relies on the animal's evolutionary danger response (Airport Cooperative Research Program 2011).However, bioacoustics are species-specific and birds may quickly become habituated to them and they should not be used as a primary means of control (U.S. Air Force 2004, Commander, Naval Installations Command 2010).


title: Bird strike

text: In 2012, operators at Gloucestershire Airport in the United Kingdom revealed that songs by the American-Swiss singer Tina Turner were more effective than animal noises for scaring birds from its runways.


title: Bird strike

text: Sharpened spikes to deter perching and loafing are commonly used. Generally, large birds require different applications than small birds do (DeVault et al. 2013).


title: Bird strike

text: There are only two chemical bird repellents registered for use in the United States. They are methyl anthranilate and anthraquinone. Methyl anthranilate is a primary repellent that produces an immediate unpleasant sensation that is reflexive and does not have to be learned. As such it is most effective for transient populations of birds (DeVault et al. 2013). Methyl anthranilate has been used with great success at rapidly dispersing birds from flight lines at Homestead Air Reserve Station (Engeman et al. 2002). Anthraquinone is a secondary repellent that has a laxative effect that is not instantaneous. Because of this it is most effective on resident populations of wildlife that will have time to learn an aversive response (Izhaki 2002, DeVault et al. 2013).


title: Bird strike

text: Relocation of raptors from airports is often considered preferable to lethal control methods by both biologists and the public. There are complex legal issues surrounding the capture and relocation of species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940. Prior to capture, proper permits must be obtained and the high mortality rates as well as the risk of disease transmission associated with relocation must be weighed. Between 2008 and 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services personnel relocated 606 red-tailed hawks from airports in the United States after the failure of multiple harassment attempts. The return rate of these hawks was 6%; however the relocation mortality rate for these hawks was never determined (DeVault et al. 2013).


title: Bird strike

text: Lethal wildlife control on airports falls into two categories: reinforcement of other non-lethal methods and population control.


title: Bird strike

text: The premise of effigies, pyrotechnics, and propane exploders is that there be a perceived immediate danger to the species to be dispersed. Initially, the sight of an unnaturally positioned effigy or the sound of pyrotechnics or exploders is enough to elicit a danger response from wildlife. As wildlife become habituated to non-lethal methods the culling of small numbers of wildlife in the presence of conspecifics can restore the danger response (Baxter and Allan 2008, Cook et al. 2008, Commander, Naval Installations Command 2010, DeVault et al. 2013).


title: Bird strike

text: Under certain circumstances, lethal wildlife control is needed to control the population of a species. This control can be localized or regional. Localized population control is often used to control species that are residents of the airfield such as deer that have bypassed the perimeter fence. In this instance sharpshooting would be highly effective, such as is seen at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (DeVault et al. 2013).


title: Bird strike

text: Regional population control has been used on species that cannot be excluded from the airport environment. A nesting colony of laughing gulls at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge contributed to 98–315 bird strikes per year, in 1979–1992, at adjacent John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Though JFK had an active bird management program that precluded birds from feeding and loafing on the airport, it did not stop them from overflying the airport to other feeding sites. U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services personnel began shooting all gulls that flew over the airport, hypothesizing that eventually, the gulls would alter their flight patterns. They shot 28,352 gulls in two years (approximately half of the population at Jamaica Bay and 5–6% of the nationwide population per year). Strikes with laughing gulls decreased by 89% by 1992. However this was more a function of the population reduction than the gulls altering their flight pattern (Dolbeer et al. 1993, Dolbeer et al. 2003, DeVault et al. 2013).


title: Bird strike

text: Pilots should not take off or land in the presence of wildlife and should avoid migratory routes, wildlife reserves, estuaries and other sites where birds may congregate. When operating in the presence of bird flocks, pilots should seek to climb above as rapidly as possible as most bird strikes occur below . Additionally, pilots should slow down their aircraft when confronted with birds. The energy that must be dissipated in the collision is approximately the relative kinetic energy (formula_1) of the bird, defined by the equation formula_2 where formula_3 is the mass of the bird and formula_4 is the relative velocity (the difference of the velocities of the bird and the plane, resulting in a lower absolute value if they are flying in the same direction and higher absolute value if they are flying in opposite directions). Therefore, the speed of the aircraft is much more important than the size of the bird when it comes to reducing energy transfer in a collision. The same can be said for jet engines: the slower the rotation of the engine, the less energy which will be imparted onto the engine at collision.


title: Bird strike

text: The US Military Avian Hazard Advisory System (AHAS) uses near real-time data from the 148 CONUS based National Weather Service Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD or WSR 88-D) system to provide current bird hazard conditions for published military low-level routes, ranges, and military operating areas (MOAs). Additionally, AHAS incorporates weather forecast data with the Bird Avoidance Model (BAM) to predict soaring bird activity within the next 24 hours and then defaults to the BAM for planning purposes when activity is scheduled outside the 24-hour window. The BAM is a static historical hazard model based on many years of bird distribution data from Christmas Bird Counts (CBC), Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS), and National Wildlife Refuge Data. The BAM also incorporates potentially hazardous bird attractions such as landfills and golf courses. AHAS is now an integral part of military low-level mission planning, aircrew being able to access the current bird hazard conditions at www.usahas.com. AHAS will provide relative risk assessments for the planned mission and give aircrew the opportunity to select a less hazardous route should the planned route be rated severe or moderate. Prior to 2003, the US Air Force BASH Team bird strike database indicated that approximately 25% of all strikes were associated with low-level routes and bombing ranges. More importantly, these strikes accounted for more than 50% of all of the reported damage costs. After a decade of using AHAS for avoiding routes with severe ratings, the strike percentage associated with low-level flight operations has been reduced to 12% and associated costs cut in half.


title: Bird strike

text: Avian radar is an important tool for aiding in bird strike mitigation as part of overall safety management systems at civilian and military airfields. Properly designed and equipped avian radars can track thousands of birds simultaneously in real-time, night and day, through 360° of coverage, out to ranges of 10 km and beyond for flocks, updating every target's position (longitude, latitude, altitude), speed, heading, and size every 2–3 seconds. Data from these systems can be used to generate information products ranging from real-time threat alerts to historical analyses of bird activity patterns in both time and space. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the United States Department of Defense (DOD) have conducted extensive science-based field testing and validation of commercial avian radar systems for civil and military applications, respectively. The FAA used evaluations of commercial 3D avian radar systems developed and marketed by Accipiter Radar as the basis for FAA Advisory Circular 150/5220-25 and a guidance letter on using Airport Improvement Program funds to acquire avian radar systems at Part 139 airports. Similarly, the DOD-sponsored Integration and Validation of Avian Radars (IVAR) project evaluated the functional and performance characteristics of Accipiter® avian radars under operational conditions at Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force airfields. Accipiter avian radar systems operating at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, and Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point made significant contributions to the evaluations carried out in the aforementioned FAA and DoD initiatives. Additional scientific and technical papers on avian radar systems are listed below, and on the Accipiter Radar web site.


title: Bird strike

text: A US company, DeTect, in 2003, developed the only production model bird radar in operational use for real-time, tactical bird-aircraft strike avoidance by air traffic controllers. These systems are operational at both commercial airports and military airfields. The system has widely used technology available for bird–aircraft strike hazard (BASH) management and for real-time detection, tracking and alerting of hazardous bird activity at commercial airports, military airfields, and military training and bombing ranges. After extensive evaluation and on-site testing, MERLIN technology was chosen by NASA and was ultimately used for detecting and tracking dangerous vulture activity during the 22 space shuttle launches from 2006 to the conclusion of the program in 2011. The US Air Force has contracted DeTect since 2003 to provide the Avian Hazard Advisory System (AHAS) previously mentioned.


title: Bird strike

text: TNO, a Dutch R&D Institute, has developed the successful ROBIN (Radar Observation of Bird Intensity) for the Royal Netherlands Airforce. ROBIN is a near real-time monitoring system for flight movements of birds. ROBIN identifies flocks of birds within the signals of large radar systems. This information is used to give Air Force pilots warning during landing and take-off. Years of observation of bird migration with ROBIN have also provided a better insight into bird migration behavior, which has had an influence on averting collisions with birds, and therefore on flight safety. Since the implementation of the ROBIN system at the Royal Netherlands Airforce the number of collisions between birds and aircraft in the vicinity of military airbases has decreased by more than 50%.


title: Bird strike

text: There are no civil aviation counterparts to the above military strategies. Some experimentation with small portable radar units has taken place at some airports. However, no standard has been adopted for radar warning nor has any governmental policy regarding warnings been implemented.


title: Bird strike

text: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates bird strikes cost US aviation 400 million dollars annually and have resulted in over 200 worldwide deaths since 1988. In the United Kingdom, the Central Science Laboratory estimates that worldwide, birdstrikes cost airlines around US$1.2 billion annually. This includes repair cost and lost revenue while the damaged aircraft is out of service. There were 4,300 bird strikes listed by the United States Air Force and 5,900 by US civil aircraft in 2003.


title: Bird strike

text: The first reported bird strike was by Orville Wright in 1905. According to the Wright Brothers' diaries, "Orville [...] flew 4,751 meters in 4 minutes 45 seconds, four complete circles. Twice passed over the fence into Beard's cornfield. Chased flock of birds for two rounds and killed one which fell on top of the upper surface and after a time fell off when swinging a sharp curve."


title: Bird strike

text: During the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race, French pilot Eugene Gilbert encountered an angry mother eagle over the Pyrenees. Gilbert, flying an open-cockpit Bleriot XI, was able to ward off the large bird by firing pistol shots at it but did not kill it.


title: Bird strike

text: The first recorded bird strike fatality was reported in 1912 when aero-pioneer Cal Rodgers collided with a gull which became jammed in his aircraft control cables. He crashed at Long Beach, California, was pinned under the wreckage, and drowned.


title: Bird strike

text: During the 1952 edition of the Carrera Panamericana, eventual race winners Karl Kling and Hans Klenk suffered a bird strike incident when the Mercedes-Benz W194 was struck by a vulture in the windscreen. During a long right-hand bend in the opening stage taken at almost , Kling failed to spot vultures sitting by the side of the road. When the vultures were scattered after hearing the virtually unsilenced W194 coming towards them, one vulture impacted through the windscreen on the passenger side. The impact was enough to briefly knock Klenk unconscious. Despite bleeding badly from facial injuries caused by the shattered windscreen, Klenk ordered Kling to maintain speed, and held on until a tire change almost later to clean himself and the car up. For extra protection, eight vertical steel bars were bolted over the new windscreen. Kling and Klenk also discussed the species and size of the dead bird, agreeing that had had a minimum wingspan and weighed as much as five fattened geese.


title: Bird strike

text: Alan Stacey's fatal accident during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix was caused when a bird hit him in the face on lap 25, causing his Lotus 18-Climax to crash at the fast, sweeping right hand Burnenville curve. According to fellow driver Innes Ireland's testimony in a mid-1980s edition of "Road & Track" magazine, Ireland stated that some spectators claimed that a bird had flown into Stacey's face while he was approaching the curve, possibly knocking him unconscious, or even possibly killing him by breaking his neck or inflicting a fatal head injury, before the car crashed.


title: Bird strike

text: The greatest loss of life directly linked to a bird strike was on October 4, 1960, when a Lockheed L-188 Electra, flying from Boston as Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, flew through a flock of common starlings during take-off, damaging all four engines. The aircraft crashed into Boston harbor shortly after takeoff, with 62 fatalities out of 72 passengers. Subsequently, minimum bird ingestion standards for jet engines were developed by the FAA.


title: Bird strike

text: NASA astronaut Theodore Freeman was killed in 1964 when a goose shattered the plexiglass cockpit canopy of his Northrop T-38 Talon. Shards were ingested by the engines, leading to a fatal crash.


title: Bird strike

text: In November 12, 1975, Overseas National Airways Flight 032, the flight crew initiated a rejected takeoff after accelerating through a large flock of gulls at John F. Kennedy International Airport, resulting in a runway excursion. Of the 139 aircraft occupants, all survived, while the aircraft was destroyed by an intense post-crash fire. An investigation was carried out on the #3 engine by General Electric Aircraft Engines (GEAE) in Ohio. Disassembly revealed that several engine fan blades were damaged and broken, causing blades to abrade the epoxy fan shroud; as the epoxy combusted, it ignited jet fuel leaking from a broken fuel line. However, GEAE denied that the ingested birds were the underlying cause of the damage. Company investigators speculated that a tire or landing gear failure had occurred prior to the bird strikes, and that tire, wheel or landing gear debris ingested into the engine caused the fan blade damage and cut the fuel line. To demonstrate that the General Electric CF6 engine was capable of withstanding a bird strike, the National Transportation Safety Board conducted a test with a sample engine.


title: Bird strike

text: In 1988, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 604 sucked pigeons into both engines during takeoff and then crashed, killing 35 passengers.


title: Bird strike

text: In 1995, a Dassault Falcon 20 crashed at a Paris airport during an emergency landing attempt after sucking lapwings into an engine, which caused an engine failure and a fire in the airplane's fuselage; all 10 people on board were killed.


title: Bird strike

text: On September 22, 1995, a U.S. Air Force Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft (Callsign Yukla 27, serial number 77-0354), crashed shortly after takeoff from Elmendorf AFB. The aircraft lost power in both port side engines after these engines ingested several Canada geese during takeoff. It crashed about from the runway, killing all 24 crew members on board.


title: Bird strike

text: On March 30, 1999, during the inaugural run of the hypercoaster Apollo's Chariot in Virginia, passenger Fabio Lanzoni suffered a bird strike by a goose and required three stitches to his face. The roller coaster has a height of over 200 feet and reaches speeds over 70 miles per hour.


title: Bird strike

text: On November 28, 2004, the nose landing gear of KLM Flight 1673, a Boeing 737-400, struck a bird during takeoff at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The incident was reported to air traffic control, the landing gear was raised normally, and the flight continued normally to its destination. Upon touching down at Barcelona International Airport, the aircraft started deviating to the left of the runway centreline. The crew applied right rudder, braking, and the nose wheel steering tiller but could not keep the aircraft on the runway. After it veered off the paved surface of the runway at about 100 knots, the jet went through an area of soft sand. The nose landing gear leg collapsed and the left main landing gear leg detached from its fittings shortly before the aircraft came to a stop perched over the edge of a drainage canal. All 140 passengers and six crew evacuated safely, but the aircraft itself had to be written off. The cause was discovered to be a broken cable in the nose wheel steering system caused by the bird collision. Contributing to the snapped cable was the improper application of grease during routine maintenance which led to severe wear of the cable.


title: Bird strike

text: In April 2007, a Thomsonfly Boeing 757 from Manchester Airport to Lanzarote Airport suffered a bird strike when at least one bird, supposedly a crow, was ingested by the starboard engine. The plane landed safely back at Manchester Airport a while later. The incident was captured by two plane spotters on opposite sides of the airport, as well as the emergency calls picked up by a plane spotter's radio.


title: Bird strike

text: The Space Shuttle Discovery also hit a bird (a vulture) during the launch of STS-114 on July 26, 2005, although the collision occurred soon after lift-off and at low speed, with no obvious damage to the shuttle.


title: Bird strike

text: On November 10, 2008, Ryanair Flight 4102 from Frankfurt to Rome made an emergency landing at Ciampino Airport after multiple bird strikes caused both engines to fail. After touchdown, the left main landing gear collapsed, and the aircraft briefly veered off the runway. Passengers and crew were evacuated through the starboard emergency exits.


title: Bird strike

text: On January 4, 2009, a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter hit a red-tailed hawk in Louisiana. The hawk hit the helicopter just above the windscreen. The impact forced the activation of the engine fire suppression control handles, retarding the throttles and causing the engines to lose power. Eight of the nine people on board died in the subsequent crash; the survivor, a passenger, was seriously injured.


title: Bird strike

text: On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport ditched into the Hudson River after experiencing a loss of both turbines. It is suspected that the engine failure was caused by running into a flock of geese at an altitude of about , shortly after takeoff. All 150 passengers and 5 crew members were safely evacuated after a successful water landing. On May 28, 2010, the NTSB published its final report into the accident.


title: Bird strike

text: On August 15, 2019, Ural Airlines Flight 178 from Moscow–Zhukovsky to Simferopol, Crimea, suffered a bird strike after taking off from Zhukovsky and crash landed in a cornfield 5 kilometers away from the airport. 74 people were injured, all with minor injuries.


title: Bird strike

text: Flying insect strikes, like bird strikes, have been encountered by pilots since aircraft were invented. Future United States Air Force general Henry H. Arnold, as a young officer, nearly lost control of his Wright Model B in 1911 after a bug flew into his eye while he was not wearing goggles, distracting him.


title: Bird strike

text: In 1968, North Central Airlines Flight 261, a Convair 580, encountered large concentrations of insects between Chicago and Milwaukee. The accumulated insect remains on the windshield severely impaired the flightcrew's forward visibility; as a result, while descending to land at Milwaukee, the aircraft suffered a mid-air collision with a private Cessna 150 that the Convair's flightcrew had been unable to see until a split second before the collision, killing the three occupants of the Cessna and severely injuring the Convair's first officer.


title: Bird strike

text: In 1986, a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress on a low-level training mission entered a swarm of locusts. The insects' impacts on the aircraft's windscreens rendered the crew unable to see, forcing them to abort the mission and fly using the aircraft's instruments alone. The aircraft eventually landed safely.


title: Bird strike

text: In 2010, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) issued a warning to pilots about the potential dangers of flying through a locust swarm. CASA warned that the insects could cause loss of engine power and loss of visibility, and blocking of an aircraft's pitot tubes, causing inaccurate airspeed readings.


title: Bird strike

text: Bug strikes can also affect the operation of machinery on the ground, especially motorcycles. The team on the US TV show "MythBusters" – in a 2010 episode entitled "Bug Special" – concluded that death could occur if a motorist were hit by a flying insect of sufficient mass in a vulnerable part of the body. Anecdotal evidence from motorcyclists supports pain, bruising, soreness, stings, and forced dismount caused by collision with an insect at speed.


title: Patrick Bauchau

text: Patrick Nicolas Jean Sixte Ghislain Bauchau (born 6 December 1938) is a Belgian actor best known for his roles in the films "A View to a Kill", "The Rapture" and "Panic Room", as well as the TV shows "The Pretender" and "House".


title: Patrick Bauchau

text: Patrick Bauchau was born in Brussels, Belgium on 6 December 1938, the son of Mary (née Kozyrev), a Russian-born school administrator and publisher, and Henry Bauchau, a school administrator, lawyer, publisher, writer, and psychoanalyst who served as an officer in the Belgian Underground during World War II. He was raised in Belgium, Switzerland and England.


title: Patrick Bauchau

text: He attended Oxford University on an academic scholarship and speaks German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, and a little Russian and Dutch.


title: Patrick Bauchau

text: He is married to the sister of model and actress Brigitte Bardot, Mijanou Bardot, and lives in Los Angeles.


title: Patrick Bauchau

text: Bauchau began his career in French New Wave cinema, including acting in two films by Éric Rohmer, "La Carrière de Suzanne" (1963) and "La Collectionneuse" (1967). He also participated in the New German Cinema in films like Wim Wenders' "Der Stand der Dinge" (1982).


title: Patrick Bauchau

text: Bauchau is better known for his roles in American television. Bauchau has starred in many different TV shows and movies, including "Choose Me", "A View to a Kill" as Scarpine, "The Pretender", "", "The Rapture", "Clear and Present Danger", "The Cell", "Panic Room", "Boy Culture", "Carnivàle", "2012", "Extraordinary Measures" and "Get the Gringo". In 1987, he was considered for the part of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "". In 1989 he starred as the murderer in "Columbo: Murder: A Self Portrait". In 1992 he guest-starred on "Murder, She Wrote": The Monte Carlo Murders. In 2004 he appeared in the Ray Charles biopic "Ray" as Dr. Hacker. In 2005, he appeared as a guest star on ABC's "Alias", as well as on the Fox shows "House" and "24".


title: Patrick Bauchau

text: In 2007 Bauchau took the lead dramatic role in the biographical movie "The Gray Man"—a thriller which dramatised the crimes of the American sadomasochistic serial killer, rapist, and cannibal Albert Fish. In 2009, he appeared as a guest star on ABC's show "Castle". For movies, he often performs the French dubbing of his characters himself, as he is a native French speaker. In 2011, Bauchau guest-starred on the episode "Eye for an Eye" of USA's "Burn Notice".


title: If U Seek Amy

text: "If U Seek Amy" (radio-edited as "If U See Amy") is a song by American singer Britney Spears from her sixth studio album, "Circus" (2008). It was released on March 10, 2009, by Jive Records as the third single of the album, chosen by a poll on Spears' official website. "If U Seek Amy" was written and produced by Swedish producer Max Martin, who also wrote previous hits for her first three albums, and was marked as Spears' comeback song to Martin since 2001. In the song, Spears is looking for a woman named Amy in a club, and although it appears to be about sex, it is actually about how society perceives her life. Musically, "If U Seek Amy" makes use of instruments such as keyboards and timpani.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: "If U Seek Amy" was generally well-received by critics. After its release, the song caused some controversy in various countries because "If U Seek Amy" sounds like "F-U-C-K me". This led to the Parents Television Council (PTC) threatening to file indecency complaints against any radio station that played the song during daytime. An edited version of the song titled "If U See Amy" was released in some regions, including in stations owned by Clear Channel Radio and Austereo. "If U Seek Amy" was successful, reaching the top 10 or the top 20 in various countries around the world. It was also Spears' third single from the album "Circus" to reach the top 20 in the US.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: The music video for "If U Seek Amy" begins with a parody of an "America's Newsroom" report by Megyn Kelly and portrays Spears at a sex party that takes place at her house. Towards the end, she changes into conservative housewife clothes and opens the front door with her family while paparazzi take pictures of them. It references some of her previous music videos such as "...Baby One More Time" and "Piece of Me". Critics noted the similarities with her past work and also compared it to the film "Eyes Wide Shut". "If U Seek Amy" was performed at the Circus Starring Britney Spears (2009) and the Femme Fatale Tour (2011). It was also performed as part of the revamped setlist of Spears' Las Vegas residency show, (2013–17). Most recently, "If U Seek Amy" was performed on Spears' Piece of Me Tour in 2018.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: The song was co-written and produced by Max Martin, who wrote hits for Spears' first albums, including "...Baby One More Time" (1998) and "Oops!... I Did It Again" (2000). This marked the first time they worked together since her third studio album, "Britney" (2001). Recording sessions took place at Conway Recording Studios and Sunset Studios in Hollywood, California. Background vocals by Kinnda and Martin were recorded at Maratone Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The recordings were mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia. On December 5, 2008, a poll was added to Spears' official website to choose the third single, involving ten other songs from "Circus". On January 7, 2009, it was announced that "If U Seek Amy" had won, receiving 26% of the total votes.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: "If U Seek Amy" runs through a dance-oriented beat and features many instruments, including keyboards, snare, bass drums, electric guitars and timpani. According to the sheet music published at musicnotes.com by Hal Leonard Corporation, the song has a beat of 130 beats per minute and is written in the key of A minor. Spears' vocal range spans from G-C. In the song, Spears seems to be looking for a woman named Amy in a club. It has been suggested that Amy is either Amy Winehouse or an alter ego of Spears herself. The verses end with the hookline "Hahahehehahaho". The chorus begins with the lines "Love me, hate me / Say what you want about me", a reference to the public's perception and fascination with Spears' life. This presents Spears both as "an object of desire and a punching bag". According to Neil McCormick of "The Daily Telegraph", this line also alludes to the public image of Amy Winehouse.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: The title, "If U Seek Amy", is a pun, meaning to sound like "F-U-C-K me" when heard in the chorus, "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to, if you seek Amy." This wordplay was compared to passages of William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and James Joyce's "Ulysses" where characters covertly spell out profanities, songs by Memphis Slim, R. Stevie Moore, April Wine, Poster Children and The Script entitled "If You See Kay," and the title of Van Halen's 1991 album, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge".


title: If U Seek Amy

text: The song received generally favorable reviews. Chris Williams of "Billboard" said the song is "Max Martin and Spears at their best: a stomping dance floor beat with building synths prodding the song along and the singer sounding like she's having a blast being the bad girl". "Rolling Stone" writer Caryn Ganz called the song one of the standout tracks of the album. Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" commented that her stronger and confident delivery in the chorus was noticeably lacking in the rest of the album. Joey Guerra of the "Houston Chronicle" also said that the "more aggressive, pointed persona" Spears adopts in the song is one of the high points of the album. "The Emory Wheel"'s writer Julia Cox called it "the album's strongest and most unorthodox song". Ricardo Baca of "The Denver Post" named the song the most fascinating track of the album and commented on the euphemism, saying "It's trashy and clever, and it's also quite fun. And fun is exactly what Spears should be aiming for". However, there were also some negative reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said the song is "a Katy Perry-styled exercise in crass commercial carnality that is at once the best and worst song here". Chris Willman of "Entertainment Weekly" called it "puerile" and added that "it'll be a middle-school sensation". "NME" named it one of the filthiest songs of all time.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: Controversy was first reported by Australian music site Undercover.com.au on December 5, 2008, after the release of the album. Leonie Barsenbach, a housewife from Sydney, said, "I was astonished and totally taken aback when I heard my 5 and 7-year-old kids walking around the house singing 'F-U-C-K' ... When I asked them what it was, they told me it was Britney Spears. I was horrified. I got them the "Circus" album but there was no warning on it ... It is extremely offensive. I feel deceived." "Rolling Stone" writer Daniel Kreps defended Spears, arguing that parents should have been aware of the singer's musical themes. After the song was announced as the third single from the album, American radio stations were unsure about playing the track due to its double entendre in the chorus. Program directors of Z100 and KIIS-FM compared the issues to be faced by their radio stations to the release of the Black Eyed Peas 2005 single, "Don't Phunk with My Heart", saying that "listeners thought it was the other word, and so we had to change it to 'mess'". Program director Patti Marshall of Q102 said "It's ok to put in on an album, have fun with it, but we're publicly owned, you know? [...] It's not about us. It's about the mom in the minivan with her 8-year-old." WFLZ's Tommy Chuck said his station produced their own edit of the song that replaced "seek" with "see", with the station's disc jockeys referring to it as "If U See Amy".


title: If U Seek Amy

text: Shortly after, the Parents Television Council (PTC) threatened to file indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against any station that played the song between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. PTC President Tim Winter said "there is no misinterpreting the lyrics to this song, and it's certainly not about a girl named Amy. It's one thing for a song with these lyrics to be included on a CD so that fans who wish to hear it can do so, but it's an entirely different matter when this song is played over the publicly-owned airwaves, especially at a time when children are likely to be in the listening audience." RBR.com reported that "interestingly, "Circus" was reviewed by Common Sense Media, another organization whose mission is to help parents manage their children's media consumption. It rated it appropriate for age 13 and up, but made no specific mention of 'If U Seek Amy'. Even more interestingly, reputed incoming FCC Chair Julius Genachowski is a founding board member of Common Sense." The threats of the PTC were later extended to cable music channels that played the music video; however, the FCC does not have control over cable.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: On January 23, 2009, Tom Poleman, senior vice president of programming for Clear Channel Radio, announced they planned to play an edited version. Sharon Dastur of Z100 added that Spears had recorded a new version of the song and the new edit would be provided by Jive Records. David Hinckley of the "Daily News" commented that "Clear Channel, which laid off 9% of its workforce this week, is hardly in the mood to finance an FCC fight right now". Finally, a radio edit titled "If U See Amy" was released to American radio stations (after some stations briefly eliminated those lyrics of the song entirely), which changes the "seek" to "see", which instead spells "F-U-C-A me". The amended version was released in the UK in May. While the song has not officially been renamed or released in Australia, some radio stations, such as those belonging to Austereo, play the censored version, while others continue to play it uncensored. Both the music video and the international radio single remain "If U Seek Amy".


title: If U Seek Amy

text: According to Nielsen SoundScan, "If U Seek Amy" sold over 107,000 digital copies in the United States within two weeks of the album's release. On April 11, 2009, the song peaked at number 17 on the "Billboard" Hot Digital Songs. On May 9, 2009, the song peaked at number 19 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, making "Circus" the first Spears album to have three top 20 hits since her 1999 debut, "...Baby One More Time". As of March 2015, "If U Seek Amy" has sold 1.3 million digital downloads in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan. It is her 10th best-selling digital single in the country. In Canada, the song debuted at 88 on December 20, 2008. It returned on February 14, 2009, at 86 before reaching the 13th position, where it finally peaked on April 4, 2009.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: "If U Seek Amy" debuted at number 49 on the ARIA Singles Chart on February 16, 2009, and moved to a peak position of 11 on March 30, 2009, also becoming the chart's "greatest gainer". It has since been certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) with sales of over 35,000 copies. "If U Seek Amy" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 45 on April 6, 2009, due to its rising digital sales. After its physical release, it peaked at number 20 on May 10, 2009. According to the Official Charts Company, the song has sold 105,000 copies there. "If U Seek Amy" also achieved success worldwide, reaching the top 10 in Belgium (Wallonia), France and Turkey, and the top 20 in Belgium (Flanders), Ireland, New Zealand and Sweden.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: The music video for "If U Seek Amy" was filmed on February 7, 2009, at Pacific Palisades, California and was directed by Jake Nava, who previously worked with Spears for her "My Prerogative" music video. Spears was styled by David Thomas for the video. During the scenes at the party, she wears American Apparel wet-looking leggings and a black corset from London lingerie designer Bordelle with diamond-shaped holes. She also wears a pair of red high-heeled Louboutins with rouced petals, that were not available for sale until a month after the video was released. When she is dressed as a housewife, Spears has a blonde wig, wears a pale pink sweater, a white skirt from Derek Lam and a Lacoste polo shirt. The music video premiered on March 12, 2009, on both Virgin Mobile's official website and Spears' official websites.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: The video starts with a news anchor (played by Kristina Mitchell) saying the title of the song above a news banner that reads "Britney Spears song lyrics spell out obscenity in disguise". This is a parody of an "America's Newsroom" report by Megyn Kelly. It then skips to a house, in which a sex party is coming to an end. Spears starts singing while sitting on the edge of a bed while the people that surround her are getting dressed. She gets up and looks out the window. As the first verse ends, she picks up a pair of panties from the floor, recalling her personal struggles and the "Piece of Me" video. She dances with four male dancers in the first chorus. During the second chorus, she dances with four other female dancers dressed in cheerleading outfits, while many men are watching them dance. The screen fades to white and Spears begins to change into a conservative '50s-inspired housewife outfit. As the chorus begins again, she comes out of her bedroom. She walks down the stairs, with dancers surrounding her and a woman gives her a potholder, which she uses to pick up a pie. After this, she walks out the front door of the house and is joined by her seemingly conservative-looking husband and children, one of them dressed with the schoolgirl outfit Spears wore in the "...Baby One More Time" video. As they go down the walkway, they are surrounded by paparazzi, who have no idea what goes on behind closed doors. While the kids and husband wave, Spears smiles for the camera and blows a kiss. The video then ends with the news anchor saying, "Doesn't make any sense, does it?".


title: If U Seek Amy

text: James Montgomery of MTV stated that the video manages to combine elements from her previous music videos, such as the style of "Everytime" and the attitude of "Stronger". He also referred to it as "a pretty amazing amalgamation of all things Brit, and a nice primer of her entire career up to this point". "Rolling Stone" writer Daniel Kreps compared the party in the video to the 1999 film "Eyes Wide Shut" and added that "this may be the first Spears video ever crafted strictly with the morally-lax Internet in mind, a brazen clip that doesn't have to tone down its explicit nature lyrically and visually in order to get airplay". Leah Greenblatt of "Entertainment Weekly" said, "it's kind of difficult to believe the song's real meaning will get past even the thickest listener, the video itself is pretty tame...almost disappointingly so". The reviewer also compared the hairstyle of Spears during the housewife scenes to Marilyn Monroe.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: Spears performed the song during 2009's the Circus Starring Britney Spears. After a performance of "Boys" from "Britney", Spears performed a military drill with her male dancers, which ended with her putting on a faux fur vest to perform "If U Seek Amy". At the end, Spears pulled a giant pink hammer and proceeded to knock her dancers off the stage, in a similar way to Whac-A-Mole. Jerry Shriver of "USA Today" said in the opening night of the tour, "[the] single 'If U Seek Amy' draws a huge roar and sing-along from the crowd as Spears shakes her long blond mane". Craig Rosen of "The Hollywood Reporter" commented, "The artist that raised the ire of parents from the beginning in her scandalous schoolgirl outfit also continues to use shock-and-awe tactics. Her latest, 'If U Seek Amy' [...] was included in the set, much to the delight of her young fans".


title: If U Seek Amy

text: "If U Seek Amy" was also performed by Spears at 2011's Femme Fatale Tour. Spears reappeared onstage after "Lace and Leather" to perform a jazz-inspired version of the song, wearing a white skirt and standing over a fan, recalling Marilyn Monroe's iconic scene in "The Seven Year Itch" (1955). The backdrops behind her showed 1940s crime film-inspired black-and-white footage while photographers in colorful outfits took pictures of her. Rick Florino of Artistdirect said, "Marrying old school detective fare and stadium-size anthems is something no other pop star has done, and once again Britney's the first." Nicki Escudero of the "Phoenix New Times" stated that it was "nice" to hear remixed versions of older hits, "such as the jazzy 'If You Seek Amy,' the sultry and Middle Eastern-inspired 'Boys' and the sped-up 'Toxic'."


title: If U Seek Amy

text: Spears performed the song at her revamped Las Vegas residency show, , at The AXIS theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, starting in 2016. The performance, which pays homage to Spears' "Circus" era, immediately follows the song "Circus" (2008) on the set list.


title: If U Seek Amy

text: In both world tour adaptations of the residency, and Piece of Me Tour, as well in her Apple Music Festival performance in 2016, "If U Seek Amy" was also performed, mirroring the same performance of the residency.


title: Cascais

text: Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km. Cascais is an important tourist destination. Its marina hosts events such as the America's Cup and the town of Estoril, part of the Cascais municipality, hosts conferences such as the Horasis Global Meeting.


title: Cascais

text: Cascais's history as a popular seaside resort originated in the 1870s, when King Luís I of Portugal and the Portuguese royal family made the seaside town their residence every September, thus also attracting members of the Portuguese nobility, who established a summer community there. Cascais is known for the many members of royalty who have lived there, including King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, when he was the Duke of Windsor, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, and King Umberto II of Italy. Exiled Cuban president Fulgencio Batista was also once a resident of the municipality. The Casino Estoril inspired Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel "Casino Royale".


title: Cascais

text: The municipality is one of the wealthiest in both Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula. It has one of the most expensive real estate markets and one of the highest costs of living in the country and is consistently ranked highly for its quality of life.


title: Cascais

text: Human settlement of the territory today known as Cascais dates to the late Paleolithic, as indicated by remnants encountered in the north of Talaíde, in Alto do Cabecinho (Tires) and south of Moinhos do Cabreiro. It was during the Neolithic that permanent settlements were established in the region, their inhabitants utilizing the natural grottoes (such as the Caves of Poço Velho in Cascais) and artificial shelters (like those in Alapraia or São Pedro) to deposit their dead. The bodies were buried along with offerings, a practice that continued to the Chalcolithic.


title: Cascais

text: Roman interventions in the area occurred with the settlement of the "villae" of Freiria (today São Domingos de Rana) and Casais Velhos (Charneca), evidence for which includes a group of ten tanks discovered along the "Rua Marques Leal Pancada" in Cascais, which was the location of a salting factory for fish. Roman dominion over the territory also influenced place names in the region, as was the case with the word "Caparide" (from the Latin "capparis", meaning ""caper""), as well as several inscriptions associated with funerary graves.


title: Cascais

text: The Visigoths also left their mark especially on the Visigothic Cemetery of Alcoitão, as well as in the late-Roman and medieval necropolis of Talaíde.


title: Cascais

text: Similarly, Muslim settlers in the region left their mark on local place names, including "Alcoitão" and "Alcabideche", where the romantic poet Ibn Muqana al-Qabdaqi, who wrote of the region's agriculture and windmills, was born at the beginning of the 11th century. The discovery of several corpses in 1987 at Arneiro, in Carcavelos, led to the identification of fifteen burials that, due to their characteristics, made it possible to verify that the individuals buried there were of Berber origin.


title: Cascais

text: The development of Cascais began in earnest in the 12th century, when it was administratively subordinate to the town of Sintra, located to the north. In its humble beginnings, Cascais depended on the products of the sea and land, but by the 13th century its fish production was also supplying the nearby city of Lisbon. The toponym ""Cascais"" appears to derive from this period, a plural derivation of "cascal" ("monte de cascas") which signified a "mountain of shells", referring to the abundant volume of marine mollusks harvested from the coastal waters. During the 14th century, the population spread outside the walls of its fortress castle.


title: Cascais

text: The settlement's prosperity led to its administrative independence from Sintra in 1364. On 7 June 1364, the people of Cascais obtained from King Peter I the elevation of the village to the status of town, necessitating the appointment of local judges and administrators. The townspeople were consequently obligated to pay the Crown 200 pounds of gold annually, as well as bearing the expense of paying the local administrators' salaries. Owing to the regions' wealth, these obligations were easily satisfied. The town and the surrounding lands were owned by a succession of feudal lords, the most famous of whom was João das Regras (died 1404), a lawyer and professor of the University of Lisbon who was involved in the ascension of King John I to power as the first King of the House of Aviz.


title: Cascais

text: The castle of Cascais was likely constructed during this period, since by 1370, King Ferdinand had donated the castle and Cascais to Gomes Lourenço de Avelar to hold as a seigneurial fiefdom. These privileges were then passed on to his successors, among them João das Regras and the Counts of Monsanto, and later the Marquess of Cascais. Meanwhile, despite its conquest and sack by Castilian forces in 1373, and blockade of the port in 1382 and 1384, Cascais continued to grow beyond its walls. By the end of the 14th century this resulted in the creation of the parishes of Santa Maria de Cascais, São Vicente de Alcabideche and São Domingos de Rana.


title: Cascais

text: From the Middle Ages onward, Cascais depended on fishing, maritime commerce (it was a stop for ships sailing to Lisbon), and agriculture, producing wine, olive oil, cereals, and fruits. Due to its location at the mouth of the Tagus estuary, it was also seen as a strategic post in the defence of Lisbon. Around 1488, King John II built a small fortress in the town, situated by the sea. On 15 November 1514, Manuel I conceded a foral ("charter") to Cascais, instituting the region's municipal authority. It was followed on 11 June 1551 by a license from King John III to institutionalise the "Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Cascais". The Mother Church of Cascais, the Church of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, dates back to the early 16th century. The town's medieval fortress was inadequate to repel invasions, and in 1580 Spanish troops led by the Duque of Alba took the village during the conflict that led to the union of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns. The fortress was enlarged towards the end of the 16th century by King Philip I (Philip II of Spain), turning it into a typical Renaissance citadel with the characteristic flat profile and star-shaped floorplan. Following the Portuguese restoration in 1640, a dozen bulwarks and redoubts were constructed under the direction of the Count of Cantanhede, who oversaw the defences of the Tagus estuary, the gateway to the city of Lisbon. Of these structures, the citadel of Cascais, which was constructed alongside the fortress of Our Lady of Light, considerably reinforced the strategic defences of the coast.


title: Cascais

text: In 1755, the great Lisbon earthquake destroyed a large portion of the city. Around 1774, the Marquis of Pombal, prime-minister of King José I, took protective measures for the commercialisation of the wine of Carcavelos and established the Royal Factory of Wool in the village, which existed until the early 19th century. During the invasion of Portugal by Napoleonic troops in 1807, the citadel of Cascais was occupied by the French, with General Junot staying some time in the village.


title: Cascais

text: In 1862, the Visconde da Luz built a summer house in Cascais. He and a group of friends also organized the construction of a road from Cascais to Oeiras, effectively linking Cascais to Lisbon, and also promoted other improvements to the town. As a result of these improvement, King Luís I decided to make Cascais into his summer residence and, from 1870 to 1908, the Portuguese royal family from the House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha spent part of the summer in Cascais to enjoy the sea, turning the quiet fishing village into a cosmopolitan address. Thanks to King Luís, the citadel was equipped with the country's first electric lights in 1878. Cascais also benefited from the construction of a better road to Sintra, a bullfight ring, a sports club, and improvements to basic infrastructure for the population. Many noble families built impressive mansions in an eclectic style commonly referred to as "summer architecture", many of which are still to be seen in the town centre and environs. The first railway arrived in 1889. Another important step in the development of the area was made in the first half of the 20th century with the building of a casino and infrastructure in neighbouring Estoril.


title: Cascais

text: In 1882 Cascais installed one of the first tide gauges in Europe in order to assist with navigation into the port of Lisbon. In 1896, King Carlos I, a lover of all maritime activities, installed in the citadel the first oceanographic laboratory in Portugal. The King himself led a total of 12 scientific expeditions to the coast; these ended in 1908 after his assassination in Lisbon.


title: Cascais

text: Due to Portugal's neutrality in World War II and the town's elegance and royal past, Cascais became home to many of the exiled royal families of Europe, including those of Spain (House of Bourbon), Italy (House of Savoy), Hungary and Bulgaria. Their stories are told at the Exiles Memorial Centre.


title: Cascais

text: Nowadays, Cascais and its surroundings are a popular vacation spot for the Portuguese as well as for the international jet set and regular foreign tourists, all of them drawn by its fine beaches. The town hosts many international events, including sailing and surfing. In 2018 it was the European Youth Capital.


title: Cascais

text: Cascais is situated on the western edge of the Tagus estuary, between the Sintra mountains and the Atlantic Ocean; the territory occupied by the municipality is limited in the north by the municipality of Sintra, south and west by the ocean, and east by the municipality of Oeiras.


title: Cascais

text: Administratively, the municipality is divided into 4 civil parishes ("freguesias"), with municipal authority vested in the "Câmara Municipal" of Cascais:


title: Cascais

text: Guincho Beach and Carcavelos Beach are especially well known as good surf spots. Close to Praia do Guincho is the Cresmina Dune, which is an unstable dune system due to the constant drifting of sand particles caused by strong winds.


title: Cascais

text: Cascais has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: "Csb") with mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. Moderated by the Atlantic and the typical urban heat island of a city, temperatures in Cascais rarely get below or above .


title: Cascais

text: Cascais is easily reached from Lisbon by car on the A5 Lisbon-Cascais highway, or alternatively on the scenic "marginal" road, as well as by frequent inexpensive commuter trains. Taxis are also a common and inexpensive mode of transport in the area. The city has the ruins of a castle, an art museum and an ocean museum, as well as parks and the charming cobbled streets of the historic centre. The town has many hotels and tourist apartments as well as many good restaurants of varying cost. It is a fine base to use for those visiting Lisbon and its environs who prefer to stay outside of the city yet in an equally urban and sophisticated environment.


title: Cascais

text: Cascais ranks 9th in population density and 6th in percentage of population employed among Portuguese municipalities.


title: Cascais

text: Cascais is surrounded by popular beaches. Guincho Beach to the northwest is primarily a surfing, windsurfing, and kitesurfing beach because of the prevailing winds and sea swells, while the calm waters of the beaches to the east attract sunbathers. The lush Sintra mountains to the north are a further attraction. The shoreline to the west has cliffs, attracting tourists who come for the panoramic views of the sea and other natural sights such as the Boca do Inferno. It is also becoming a popular golf destination, with over 10 golf courses nearby.


title: Cascais

text: A large marina with 650 berths was opened in 1999 and has since held many sailing events. It was the official host of the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships for dinghies and racing yachts. The municipality also hosts international tennis and motorcycling events and for many years hosted the FIA F1 Portugal Grand Prix at the Estoril race track. The Estoril Casino is one of the largest in Europe. Near the casino is the ""Hotel Palácio"" (Palace Hotel), where scenes of the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" were shot.


title: Cascais

text: In 2017 the municipality started charging a small tourist tax, as the city had become one of the most visited destinations in Portugal. It is estimated that around 1.2 million tourists stay in the city's hotels each year (2016).


title: Cascais

text: The Cascais Aerodrome in Tires (São Domingos de Rana) serves general aviation and also offers domestic scheduled flights by Aero VIP.


title: Cascais

text: The Estoril community hosts a kindergarten and elementary school campus of the German School of Lisbon.


title: Cascais

text: The Gil Vicente theatre dates back to 1869. In its early years it was frequently attended by Portugal's Royal Family. The Cascais Experimental Theatre was established in 1965 and has presented more than a hundred shows since then. Over the years Cascais has developed several art galleries and museums. These are concentrated in a relatively small area of the town, mainly in parkland. Combined, they are known as The Museum Quarter. Several occupy large buildings that were formerly private residences and were subsequently taken over and restored by the Municipality. Entrance is either free or for a small fee (usually not more than €4). The galleries and museums are:


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz ( ; ), sometimes spelled Abxaz and also known as Abkhazian,<ref name="ISO 639-2/RA"></ref><ref name="ISO 639-3/RA"></ref> is a Northwest Caucasian language most closely related to Abaza. It is spoken mostly by the Abkhaz people. It is one of the official languages of Abkhazia, where around 100,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan, and several Western countries. 27 October is the day of the Abkhazian language in Georgia.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language and is thus related to Adyghe. The language of Abkhaz is especially close to Abaza, and they are sometimes considered dialects of the same language, Abazgi, of which the literary dialects of Abkhaz and Abaza are simply two ends of a dialect continuum. Grammatically, the two are very similar; however, the differences in phonology are substantial, it also contains elements characteristic of Kabardian; these are the main reasons for many others to prefer keeping the two separate, while others still refer to it as the Tapanta dialect of Abkhaz. Chirikba mentions that there are possible indications that proto-Northwest Caucasian, could have divided firstly into proto-Circassian and to proto-Ubykh-Abkhaz; Ubykh then being the closest relative to Abkhaz, with it only later on being influenced by Circassian.


title: Abkhaz language

text: There is not an agreed number of speakers of Abkhaz, and there are widely different numbers. It is agreed that today most of the Abkhaz people do not live in Abkhazia. In the census conducted by the Republic of Abkhazia in 2011, Abkhazians comprised 50.8% of the population, around 122,175 people; of these 92,838 speaking it natively. Only two of the original dialects are still spoken in Abkhazia. The Bzyp dialect is still spoken in its homeland northwest of Sukhumi, stretching from the Bzyp River to the western environs of Sukhumi and the Psyrtskha valley, whereas the Abzhywa dialect is spoken south-east of Sukhumi. The rest of the Abkhaz speaking population inhabits other neighbouring areas.


title: Abkhaz language

text: It is not clear the number of Abkhazians and Abkhaz speakers in Turkey. The census gives 13,951, but these numbers are doubtful, since the numbers of Abkhazians that came from the beginning of 19th century to the middle of the 20th was around 30 thousand. The Ethnologue gives 39,000 Abkhazians living in Turkey, of these only 4,000 still speak the language. The Joshua Project says there are 166,000 ethnic Abkhazians in Turkey, and the head of the Abkhaz federation says there are in between 500-700 thousand Abkhazians in Turkey. In general, Abkhaz seems to have been lost by most of the descendants, and bilingualism being low except in some specific areas, although there seems to be an effort for the new generation to learn the language with public schools being able to teach Abkhaz and together with 7,836 second language speakers. Abkhazian villages are concentrated around the cities of Adapazarı, Düzce, Sinop, Hendek and Sansum in the northern part, and in the west around cities such as Bilecik, Inegöl and Eskişehir; they are mainly found in the provinces of Sakarya and Bolu in the western part, and near the Çoruh river in the north-east.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Historically the dialects of Sadz, Ahchypsy and Tsabal were located in Abkhazia; Sadz being spoken from the Bzyp river to the Matsesta River, and further to the north-west bordering the Sochypsta River. Today they are exclusively spoken in the northwestern part of Turkey, specially in the Sakarya province, it being spoken in 14 villages.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The other major place where Abkhaz is spoken is in Karachay-Cherkessia, where the Northern dialects are spoken, although there they are considered as a separate language and form the literary Abaza language. They are spoken by 37,831 people in Russia, mostly in the south of Stavropol Krai in the area around Kislovodsk, and in the upper Kuma river area.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz is also spoken as a minority language around the world. There is a considerable number of Abkhaz speakers in Adjara in southern Georgia, with the diaspora concentrating itself around the capital Batumi, with about 982 people considering Abkhaz their first language. In the Russian census of 2010, 6,786 speakers of Abkhaz were reported in Russia. In Ukraine there are around 1,458 according to the 2001 census, but of these only 317 speak Abkhazian. There were also communities in Syria, Jordan and Iraq with around 5,000 Abkhazians, although this number could reach 10,000 according to the Abkhazia's Foreign Ministry. The biggest western diaspora is in Germany, with around 5,000 speakers, but other communities are found in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Belgium and so on.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The earliest indisputable extant written records of the Abkhaz language are in the Arabic script, recorded by the Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century. Abkhaz has been used as a literary language for only about 100 years.


title: Abkhaz language

text: It was suggested that certain inscriptions on Ancient Greek pottery which had been considered nonsense are in fact written in Abkhaz-Adydge languages. The methodology of the research was criticised and the results called improbable.


title: Abkhaz language

text: In 1918, Tbilisi State University became the first institution of higher education to teach Abkhazian language. The founders of the university began to take care of the development and scientific study of the Abkhazian language. At the meeting of the Council of Professors held at Tbilisi State University in 1918, Ivane Javakhishvili noted the scientific importance of studying Caucasian languages. In 1918, by the decision of the Council of Professors, Petre Charaia was invited to teach the Abkhazian language, and from 1925, this mission was continued by Dimitri Gulia and Simon Janashia.


title: Abkhaz language

text: In some form or the other, all dialects are richer in phonemes than the standard Abzhywa dialect. The only dialects spoken in Abkhazia are Abzhywa and Bzyp. Northern dialects which are the basis for literary Abaza are spoken in Karachay-Cherkessia, while the other dialects such as Sadz are spoken in Turkey due to Russian invasions in the 19th century. While most differences are phonetic, differences in the lexicon are present, although mostly due to exterior contact. Bzyp contains the most preserved lexicon, with few borrowings. Abzhywa has adopted many loans from Kartvelian, specially Mingrelian; Sadz on the other hand has more words from Circassian. Northern dialects in general have more loanwords from Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Circassian.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz has a very large number of consonants (58 in the literary dialect), with three-way voiced/voiceless/ejective and palatalized/labialized/plain distinctions. By contrast, the language has only two phonemically distinct vowels, which have several allophones depending on the palatal and/or labial quality of adjacent consonants.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Labialised alveolo-palatal fricatives are found in the Bzyp and Sadz dialects of Abkhaz, but not in Abzhywa. Plain alveolo-palatal consonants and the pharyngealised and labialised-pharyngealised uvular fricatives are unique to the Bzyp dialect.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The consonants highlighted in red and in brackets are the 4 kinds of labialisation described by Chirikba.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The nature of the vowels of Abkhaz are not clear. Some linguists, characterise the vowel system as a 2 degree vertical vowel system; with the two vowels being distinguished by height, 'ә' being the high/close vowel, and 'а' being the low/open. This system would very closely resemble the one found in Adyghe. The quality of 'ә' in this case, is usually represented as [ɨ] if the vowel is in a stressed position, and being unaffected by its neighbouring consonants.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Other linguists however, mainly Russian ones, describe the vowels differently. They describe the sound of 'ә' being completely different from [ɨ], and by their descriptions being closer to [ə]. The 'а' is described as being particularly back, likely [ɑ].


title: Abkhaz language

text: Typical of Northwest Caucasian languages, Abkhaz is an agglutinative language that relies heavily on affixation. It has an ergative-absolutive typology, such that the subject of an intransitive verb functions identically to the object of a transitive verb. Notably, Abkhaz expresses ergativity entirely through the ordering of subjects and objects within verb constructions rather than through overt case marking as most other ergative languages do.


title: Abkhaz language

text: All Latin transliterations in this section utilize the system explicated in Chirikba (2003) (see Abkhaz alphabet for the details).


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz morphology features a highly complex verb system that could be called a “sentence in miniature.” Chirikba (2003) describes Abkhaz as a “verbocentric” language wherein verbs occupy the “central part of the morphology.” However, despite its complexity, Abkhaz verbal morphology is highly regular.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Abkhaz, being an ergative language, makes a strong distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs, as well as dynamic and stative.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Stative verbs describe states of being, roughly analogous to copular phrases in English, as in дхәыҷуп ("d-x˚əčә́-wə-p" - “she is a child”). Dynamic verbs express direct actions, functioning more closely to standard English verbs. Dynamic verbs possess the full range of aspect, mood and tense forms, in contrast to statives, which do not.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Another important verbal distinction in Abkhaz is finite versus non-finite, referring to the duration of the action. Finite verbs usually contain enough information to form a complete sentence, whereas non-finite verbs typically form dependent clauses.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Verb stems can be derived in a number of ways, including compounding, affixation, reduplication or conversion from another part of speech.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Roughly equivalent to the infinitive, or to a so-called “verbal noun,” the Masdar form of the verb resembles the English gerund. It is formed by the addition of a specific suffix to a bare verb stem, -ра ("-ra") for a dynamic verb and -заара ("-zaara") for a stative.


title: Abkhaz language

text: However, the fully conjugated personal Abkhaz verb forms are “templatic,” with each grammatical distinction occupying a specific “slot” or “position” within the broader verb template. Verbs are thus formed by the addition of various affixes to the verb stem; these affixes express such distinctions as transitivity, person and stative/dynamic quality, occupying rigid positions within the overall verb structure. There is a high degree of agreement between verbs and other parts of speech. Overall, the Abkhaz verb is constructed as follows:


title: Abkhaz language

text: Not all of these elements will necessarily co-occur in every verb. The individual parts of verb morphology are addressed below.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The first prefixing element of the verb complex expresses either the subject of an intransitive verb in the absolutive construction, or the direct object of a transitive verb in an ergative construction. The following table illustrates the various agreement markers which can occupy the first position. These prefixes can either be in their long forms, containing the letters inside the parenthesis, or in the short forms that don't contain them. The rules for using them are the following:


title: Abkhaz language

text: It is also possible for the possessive prefix ҽы́- ("čə́-") in a reflexive construction or the relative prefix иы́- ("jә́-") in a non-finite construction to occupy this position.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The second position is occupied by the indirect object or by the prefix аи- ("aj-") for reciprocal pronouns equivalent to “each other” or “one another” in English.


title: Abkhaz language

text: Any indirect object occurring after the one in the second position occupies this position instead; a possessive prefix of stative verbs can also be placed here.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The agreement marker corresponding to the agent (the subject of a transitive verb) takes this position.


title: Abkhaz language

text: The first of the suffixing elements expresses adverbial information relating to “inside” (-la) or “outside” (-aa).


title: Abkhaz language

text: Several tense markers occupy this position, dependent upon whether the verb in question is stative or dynamic. Dynamic verbs have a richly developed tense paradigm incorporating tense and aspect distinctions. The table below illustrates these various dynamic tense forms using the verb агара ("agara" – “to take”).


title: Abkhaz language

text: Stative verbs, by contrast, lack this rich tense system, as illustrated below using the verb а́цәара ("ácºara" - “to be sleeping”).


title: Abkhaz language

text: The imperative takes a few possible forms, depending upon the type of verb. Dynamic verbs form the imperative by the addition of agreement suffixes to a bare verb stem; intransitives include the subject and indirect object makers, whereas transitives include the direct object and absolutive. Thus


title: Abkhaz language

text: Like verbs, Abkhaz nouns are formed by the addition of various prefixes and suffixes to a static noun stem. Noun stems can be derived according to several different processes, including compounding, reduplication, or the addition of a derivational affix.